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DALMATIA 

AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Ulyricus — Dalmazia e Italia, Consign e 
Avvertimenti. Roma, Enrico Voghera 
Editor, 1915. 

X. X. X. L'Ora della Dalmazia. Lettera 
di uno Slavo a un amico Italiano. A cura 
dell' "Unita." Firenze, Stabilimento tipo- 
graflco Aldino, 191 5. 

N. Tommaseo. Scintille, traduzione dal 
Serbo-Croato con un' introduzione storico- 
critica di Luigi Voinovich. Collezione della 
Giovane Europa. Catania, Battiato Ed. 
1916. 

La Monarchic f rancaisc dans 1'Adriatique 

(Etudes sur 1'histoire diplomatique). Paris, 
Bloud et Gay, 1918. 



DALMATIA 

AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

BY 

COUNT LOUIS VOINOVITCH 
WITH A PREFACE 

BY 

Sir ARTHUR EVANS, LL.D., F.R.S. 

WITH ETHNOGRAPHICAL MAP 




LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. 
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C 1 
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



4bo 
• V-i-s 



First published in igzo 






{All rights reserved) 



Arise?i in the name of National Right we believe in yours, and 
proffer you our help to conqicer it. . . . Unite ! 

Mazzini, To the Southern Slavs. 

Trampled upon jor so "many centuries, we have not lost the 
proud nobility of the soul. . . . Blush not, Dalmatia, for thine 
origin ! 

TOMMASEO, Scintilla xxxii. 

So strong is our conviction, Gentlemeit, that if we were proposed 
the most advantageous treaties at the cost of the slightest violation 
of the principle of nationality, we should reject thetn without 
hesitation. 

Cavour, i860. 



TABLE 

OF 

SERBO-CROATIAN PRONUNCIATION. 

c = ts in Tsar 
t = t in nature 
c = ch in church 
dj = g in George 
h = ch in loch 
j = y in you 

lj = iu (without oo sound) in illumine 
nj = nu (without oo sound) in nuisance 
s = sh in ship 
z = z in azure 
Vowels as in modern pronunciation of Latin 



PREFACE 

The writer of this work, Count Lujo Vojnovi<5, is 
peculiarly qualified both by his origin and connections 
to supply a true estimate of the place occupied by 
Dalmatia, not only as regards the Slav mainland to 
which it belongs, but in relation to Italian civiliza- 
tion of the opposite coast that has at all times so 
greatly influenced it. Born of an old Ragusan family, 
he has had the initial advantage of surveying those 
intricate Italo-Slav relations from the point of view 
of that aristocratic Republic which, while it never, like 
the other Dalmatian cities, passed under the Venetian 
yoke, and clung throughout to its Serbian mother 
speech, did more than any South Slav centre to adapt 
the Italian literary spirit. Count Lujo, I may add, 
belongs to a distinguished family. His father, Count 
Constantine Vojnovic", was one of the earliest and 
most eloquent advocates of South Slav union. His 
brother Ivo claims a very high place among the 
living poets of Jugoslavia. 

I have had myself the privilege of Count Lujo's 
acquaintance for many years, and can vouch for the 
fact that, if the conclusions of his present work are 
fatal to Italian pretensions to his native land, it is 
not from any want of perception of the cultural debt 
which Dalmatia and his native city owe to their 
great neighbour over-sea or of friendship to the 
Italian people. 

3 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

As an Englishman, both as traveller and resident, 
my acquaintance with Dalmatia is not of to-day or 
yesterday. I have indeed visited the province in 
its remotest nooks, and have a personal acquaint- 
ance with every class of its inhabitants. For seven 
years of my life, indeed, I had my headquarters at 
Ragusa, and I can thoroughly endorse the views 
that are put forward by the author of this work 
by my long experiences. 

The idea that any part of Dalmatia is at the 
present day in any true sense Italian is a pure delusion 
— though for purposes of political propaganda and 
imperialistic greed that illusion has been fostered 
far and wide. It is possible indeed to go much further 
than this and to affirm that at no period of history 
could Dalmatia be truly described as an Italian 
province. It is true that, after immense efforts, 
renewed through over two centuries of ceaseless 
campaigns, Rome succeeded in mastering the native 
Illyrian population, and planted her colonies on a 
series of points along the coastland. When in the 
seventh century of our era, in the wake of Avar 
hordes, Slavonic settlers of the Serbo-Croat stock 
occupied the country, a certain proportion of these 
Roman municipal organizations survived as islands in 
a barbaric sea. For a while they sought support from 
the Byzantine Exarchate, just as later they divided 
their allegiance between Hungary and Venice, but 
the remarkable ethnic phenomenon with which we 
have to deal is that by the tenth or eleventh centur}?, 
though its municipal tradition survived in the principal 
cities of its littoral and islands, the Latin-speaking 
element within their walls had been practically sub- 
merged by gradual infiltration from the surrounding 

4 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

population of Slavonic stock and assimilated to it. It 
may be added moreover as a curious fact, that the 
old Romance dialects of the East Adriatic coastland, of 
which only traces now survive in the Slav vernacular, 
did not themselves even belong to the Italian family. 
That for social and diplomatic purposes the ruling 
caste at Ragusa made considerable use of the Tuscan 
language, that the political subjection of a large part 
of Dalmatia to Venice promoted the popular use of 
a lingua franca in the Venetian dialect, are pheno- 
mena that must not obscure the fact that the home 
speech of the Dalmatians from the Early Middle Ages 
onwards has been the Serbo-Croat. The dominion of 
Venice indeed was itself wholly dissociated from the 
idea of propagating the Italian language in any form ; 
in fact, the only colony that Venice planted on the 
coast was Albanian-speaking. 

If we examine the names of eminent artists and 
architects of Dalmatia in Mediaeval and Renaissance 
times, they will be found almost exclusively to point 
to a Slavonic origin, and it is well known that some 
of these, like Andrew Medulic' ("II Schiavone ") and 
Julius Glovic (Clovio) transferred their activities to 
Italian soil. The same is true of the brilliant group 
of Dalmatian poets and dramatists, the special centre 
of whom was at Ragusa. It is equally true that, 
great as was the indebtedness of Dalmatian art 
and literature to Italian models, the native element 
was never lost nor were these models by any means 
exclusively Italian. For what is perhaps the noblest 
monument of Mediaeval Dalmatia, the Cathedral of 
Trau, the prototypes have to be sought in a more 
northern region — not beyond the Adriatic but beyond 
the Drave. 

5 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

According to the best existing statistics of the 
Dalmatian population, about 97 per cent, is Serbo- 
Croat and not more than 3 per cent. Italian. Casting 
my own memory back some forty years, and with 
an intimate knowledge of the whole country, I can 
confidently affirm that there was nothing that 
could be called a real Italian population in Dalmatia 
at all. Even the small " Autonomist " faction, which 
feared that union with the Slav lands beyond Dinara, 
would swamp the traditional elements of Dalmatian 
culture, which had been so largely due to Italian influ- 
ence, did not deny their own Slavonic nationality. 
That a portion of these should now proclaim them- 
selves to be Italians is of course their own affair, but 
the personal names of these " Italians," too often 
betray their Slav parentage. Of the unfortunate 
result of this racial schism, the small town of Zara, 
where alone the adherents of Italy can claim to be the 
majority of the population, is likely to prove a 
melancholy example. It is not difficult to foresee the 
disastrous consequences of its divorce in any form from 
the mainland to which it is bound by geographical, 
economic, and in the truest sense by ethnic ties. 

But as for handing over to Italy — as was actually 
proposed by the Secret Treaty of London — not only 
the littoral and islands, all solidly Serbo-Croat, but a 
large mainland region — including some of the most 
fervid centres of Jugoslav nationalism — the pro- 
posal can only be described as as unrealizable in 
practice as it is indefensible on any theory that 
takes count of the rights of peoples. A strange boon 
indeed of the Allies to Italy to aid her to place a 
" Trojan horse" within her walls ! 

ARTHUR EVANS. 
6 



TO THE READER 

The last great sale of nations took place in Vienna 
in 1815. 

In spite of their express declaration that they were 
righting Napoleon in the cause of independence and 
freedom of the nations, the allied Powers instituted 
the so-called " Statistical Commissions," within 
whose circle the whole pernicious Treaty of Vienna 
was elaborated. 

Peoples were passed from hand to hand during 
the debates of the Commissions like so many flocks 
of sheep. Historic rights were invoked, and strategic, 
political, and economic considerations. The Com- 
missions only consulted the wishes of the strongest 
The Austrian Imperial and Royal police took good 
care to render the air of Vienna exceedingly uncon- 
genial to the representatives of the poor and oppressed. 

Whole provinces and kingdoms were assigned to 
one or other of the great Sovereigns convened to 
Vienna after Leipzig and Waterloo, in accordance 
with the convention that each of them had to own 
so many thousands of square miles and so many 
hundreds of thousands of human souls. 

Thus, twenty years after the storming of the 
Bastille, was born the Europe of the Congress of 
Vienna. 

And Austria was the great octopus, the most 

7 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

successful trader. Italians, Slavs, Germans were 
sold to her without a qualm, without afterthought, 
without considering, that from these Statistical 
Commissions would arise, not figures, but human 
beings. There would arise avengers of that National 
Right which in itself includes precisely all those other 
considerations which the predatory States consider 
superior to or distinct from the raison d'etre of a 
people. 

The present war is merely the final act of the great 
national drama opened in 1815. 

And to-day, while all Europe is re-echoing with 
the cry of the victims of rapine and violence ; to- 
day, when the civilized world is passing through 
the most tremendous ordeal in the cause of the final 
liberation of the nations, the sad memories of 1815, 
powdered and painted after the scientific recipes of 
Pangermanism, are once more brought to light, 
and that precisely in the very land which was the 
greatest sufferer under the " Statistical Commissions " 
of 1815. 

A group of reckless politicians, separating them- 
selves from the vast majority of the nation, and 
anxious to compete with the past masters of the 
Germanic '' strenuous life," have to-day revised the 
axiom of 1815, to the detriment of the small nations 
of the Slav race. 

For this group, all nationalities — saving its own 
— are " mere external statistical data " — as in 1815 ; 
" the rural masses are devoid of national conscious- 
ness " — as in 1815 ; " the Slavs are an inferior race, 
and must submit to the ascendancy of the Latin 
race, which is superior and destined to command as 
the former is to obey " — which is the German thesis. 

8 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

All imaginable arguments — historical, economic, 
geographical, military, political and finally geological 
and botanical — are being invoked both separately 
and collectively in order to impede the final rise of 
a people. 

The Slovenes, they say, have been invented or 
imported by Austria. The Croats are peasants, 
devoid of national consciousness, owing their exist- 
ence beside the Adriatic to Austria. The Serbs 
are an Oriental race having nothing in common 
with the Croats. The Adriatic is not a sea, but a 
lake, and an Italian lake at that, whose eastern 
shores are inhabited exclusively by Italians. Dalmatia 
is a Latin and Italian country. The Slav population 
of that province, which has contributed more to 
the splendid movement for Jugoslav unity — the 
movement hailed with joy by Giuseppe Mazzini 
— than any other Slav province, is degraded to the 
status of an amorphous mass, devoid of any kind 
of Slav consciousness, to-day Austrian, and to- 
morrow Italian at will. 

To these detractors of the Slav soul one may justly 
apply the anathema hurled by Tommaseo against 
the as yet timid defamers of the Slavs of his day : — 

" Barbarians insulting unknown foreigners, have at least 
the excuse of pure ignorance and their own savage customs ; 
and they put blood into it and life ; but these academic 
vandals, these conquerors of ante-chambers, shed ink and 
spittle for blood." 

Against the cynical sophisms so liberally dissemi- 
nated by this group of politicians and a few apostates 
to their own nationality we in these pages oppose 
the irresistible eloquence of fact. Against an ingeni- 

9 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ous tissue of lies we propose to marshal the witnesses 
of the past, the men who actually took part in the 
political struggles in Dalmatia. Before all Europe, 
and without having recourse to treacherous inter- 
preters of their thought, they will depose in favour 
of the nationality and the aspirations of Dalmatia. 
These depositions are intended to serve as a warning 
to the statesmen of Italy and of Europe. They 
constitute a contribution to the future peace, which 
cannot be either sincere or lasting so long as there 
is any instability about the edifice of justice and 
liberty which Allied Europe intends to establish 
on the ruins of lies and brute force. 

Why beat about the bush ? A party which is a 
menace to the future peace of Europe is gaining 
numerous proselytes to the design of Germanism 
through the reconstitution of the anti-Slav bloc 
of the Congress of Berlin. It is counting upon the 
unconscious complicity of the Liberal Powers. The 
danger is grave, and it is necessary to organize our 
defences. 

We believe, however, and that most fervently, 
that the work of justice will find its most potent 
defender in the Italian people itself. The Italian 
soul, kindly, generous, liberal and alien to every 
manifestation of Imperialism — which is by its defi- 
nition " a policy of aggression and conquest " — 
vibrates altogether in those solemn words of 
Cavour : — 



" So strong is our conviction, gentlemen, that, if we were 
proposed the most advantageous treaties at the cost of even 
the slightest violation of the principle of nationality, we 
should reject them without hesitation." 

10 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

These men know full well the loyalty of the Italian 
people to the pure and sacred origin of its unity. 
And because they know it, they endeavour to dis- 
guise conquest by affixing the nationalist label. 
They try to mislead public opinion in Italy and in 
Europe by representing purely, indomitably Slav 
countries as Italian, and their own propaganda as 
the establishment of national claims, as the last 
word of the Risorgimento. 

The following pages are a protest against such 
trickery. 

More than six hundred thousand Slav souls of 
Dalmatia, who, together with other millions, inhabit 
an uninterruptedly continuous territory, applaud 
in chorus the words of the great Italian statesman 
and refuse to disappear. They refuse to submit 
to the " statistical " outrage of 1815. To the sophisms 
of an exiguous minority, which would draw arguments 
for conquest and oppression from an historical 
incident, from a beneficent civilizing influence, they 
reply in the words of Taine : — 

" Although the genius of a people may yield before a foreign 
influence, it will reassert itself ; because the former is tem- 
porary, whereas the latter is eternal, it is one with the flesh 
and blood, with the air and the soil, the structure and the 
peculiar action of the senses and the brain ; these are the 
vital forces which renew themselves continually, which are 
ever-present, forces which the transient admiration of a 
superior civilization can neither destroy nor diminish." 

Moreover, as we cannot repeat too often, the 
profound and traditional good sense of the Italian 
people have thoroughly realized this fact. It has 
realized that the problem of Dalmatia differs essen- 

11 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tially from the problem of the regions lying between 
the Alps and Cape Promontorio. In spite of all 
the efforts of the heralds of Panitalianism, the nation 
has not allowed itself to be led astray. Even in 
political circles the greatest divergency of opinion 
prevails with regard to Dalmatia, ranging from the 
emphatic Mazzinian renunciations of Signor Bissolati 
to the purely covetous aspirations of the party im- 
properly called Nationalist, — unmistakable proof 
of the discord prevailing in the soul of Italy, driven 
reluctantly towards an adventure in which it can 
discern neither material advantage nor moral success. 

Maps are of no value as guides. The insolent 
" scientific " mystifications of a " toponomastica " 
— an exotic word recalling Moliere's Latin — which, 
not daring to Italianize the Slav names — a course 
most disgracefully pursued in the Slovene lands — 
caused them in hundreds of cases to be printed 
in red letters in orthographically Italian spelling, 
aroused merely ill-concealed disgust among sober- 
minded Italians. An outspoken word, supported 
by incontrovertible facts, may yet furnish with 
invaluable weapons those who would place Italy, 
her honour and her future above the facile attractions 
offered to the Italian people by the plagiarizers of 
an imperialist spirit which is alien to its nature, to 
its raison d'etre, and to its mission in the world. 

Amidst all this clamour Dalmatia, this Poland of 
our race, is now silent, but her awakening will be 
terrible for those who would betray her soul. She, 
when she comes to learn of the conflict which is 
raging to-day around her fate, will be at a loss to 
understand how there could have been even one 
moment's doubt about her, and about the indissoluble 

12 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ties that bind her to the Slav soul. Her right to 
resume the course of her own national life after the 
collapse of Austria and Hungary is obvious ; it 
is a fundamental feature of her history, of her life. 

Language, history, the soul of the nation have 
been invoked to serve as pretexts for her subjugation 
to a foreign rule ! Grave indiscretions, which will 
be summarily dealt with in these pages ! 

Dalmatia has revealed her language in her national 
songs and ballads and in the harmonious and virile 
speech of her people. She has borne witness to her 
aspirations by the electoral ballot. 

And as regards her history, only those periods may 
claim her which are bound up with her national 
right. These periods are rare in a history of millennial 
sorrows, but all the more precious in a moment 
like the present, in which vast hopes and distant 
horizons are disclosed. 

Bound by pacts and conditions to a dynasty, under 
which she hoped to realize at least in part her 
aspirations to a joint life with the rest of her Slav 
sisters, to a dynasty which subsequently to her 
detriment violated the most sacred of oaths, she is 
now preparing automatically to resume, together 
with her sisters, the right to decide her own destiny, 
on the granite foundation of the Principle of 
Nationality. 

Let no one speak of " cession " to Serbia or to 
any other power, as if it were a case of ceding 
anational, amorphous territories by way of political, 
commercial or strategic compensation after the 
pattern of the peace of Campoformio. Serbia — 
and it is well to know this — has no more right to 
Dalmatia than any other State. Rather is it the 

13 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Principle of Nationality and those eternal laws which 
are infallibly entailed by this principle which im- 
peratively demand the union of these lands with 
Serbia. What were the rights that led Piedmont 
to lay claim to Venice and Tuscany, if not the sole, 
eternal right of nationality ? 

The author of these pages is counting upon the 
good sense of the Italian people to discredit the great 
fraud which is sheltering itself beneath the shadow 
of the glorious tricoloured banner. For if deceit 
and violence were to triumph over historic truth 
and the will of an entire people, then Europe 
would have to prepare for fresh convulsions and in 
the meantime have to resign itself to see the work 
of justice and liberty gravely imperilled, a work 
which has been cemented by hecatombs, whose equal 
is not recorded in history. 

Let Europe consider this ! 

Rome, August 1916. 



14 



FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH 
EDITION 

The author of La Dalmatie, I'ltalie et I' Unite 
Yougoslave (for this is the original title of the 
volume, published in French and Italian, at Geneva 
in October 1917, when the war was at its height) 
now presents his book to the English-speaking 
public under the title of Dalmatia and the Southern 
Slav Movement. 

This book, sincere and unpretentious as it is, 
has already met with a cordial reception in Entente 
political circles, in spite of the state of siege in 
which all Europe was placed in 1917, and the 
immense difficulties besetting the circulation of a 
book published in a neutral country. 

Perhaps the moment has come when the British 
and American public will be more at leisure to give 
attention to detailed information about Dalmatia 
and so get a clearer insight into one of the aspects 
of the Adriatic problem which is of so vital an 
interest to the future political charter of Eastern 
Europe. 

If the facts set down in these pages had been 
generally known in 1915, would the disastrous 
secret Treaty of London have been signed ? I 
prefer to think not. In any case, a greater measure 

15 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of justice would have been brought to bear upon 
the making of it, and the party chiefly interested 
in it — Serbia, to wit — would have been consulted 
(I refrain from mentioning the other Slav regions 
of the Adriatic, to whom the same principle ought 
to have been applied ; at this moment we are 
concerned only with Dalmatia). 

The Slav character of Dalmatia is no longer 
doubted by anybody. There is no contention at 
once more easy and more difficult to maintain. 
Easy, because the facts are obvious. Difficult, 
because these very facts have been obscured by 
flamboyant rhetoric and insincerity, compound of 
deception and casuistry, such as history, political 
and social, has not witnessed within memory of 
man. 

But this is not all, — and I would even say that it 
is not the most important consideration, nor one 
which would by itself warrant the appearance of 
this book (although the quest of truth is always 
a very important matter !). What in the opinion 
of my numerous British and French friends amply 
warrants the appearance of this volume even after 
the signing of the Treaties of Versailles and of 
St. Germain-en-Laye, is the fact that these pages, 
while dealing with a special subject, contain 
incidentally a general and comprehensive view of 
world policy, and — to put it plainly — the con- 
demnation of imperialism. 

Dalmatia's past and present, in fact, give the 
lie direct to all imperial conquests based on a 
wilful and pernicious confusion of the term 
civilization with that of nationality, on a barbarous 
postulate of a quasi-divine mission of domination 

16 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

devolving upon a nation, assumed to be more 
civilized, over another one assumed to be less so 
(and where, moreover, is the standard which permits 
us to draw this distinction ?). 

It is this element in higher politics and sociology 
en marche — to borrow a favourite expression of 
Taine's — which invests an impartial book upon 
Dalmatia with permanent and universal value. 

Apart from this, the ethical and ethnical sides of 
the question, there is the most important one of 
practical politics. By her position, Dalmatia repre- 
sents to-day, as always, the modulation from Italian 
to Jugoslav culture, and the commercial intermediary 
between Italy and Jugoslavia. She is a most 
important section of the great bridge between 
Central and South-Eastern Europe, the other sections 
being the Croatian littoral and the Slovene Adriatic 
regions. This bridge is an integral structure, and it 
is ethnically and geographically one with the rest 
of the Jugoslav lands. To break it up politically 
would be not only a crime, but a danger to the peace 
of all Europe. Under such conditions, Dalmatia 
would no longer be able to play the part of connecting 
link. From being part of a well-constructed bridge, 
she would in fact lapse to the position of an exposed 
outpost of our young Jugoslav State, no longer 
helpful and friendly, but distrustful and vigilant in 
her attitude. 

May the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon 
world find in this work an echo of the great 
principle of liberty, self-determination and human 
dignity, which forms the woof of the history of 
this great and virile race. Unless this principle 
triumphs in the solution of the Adriatic problem 

17 B 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and in that of all similar problems in suspense, the 
European peace will be merely an armistice between 
two carnages. 

I tender my most cordial thanks to Miss Fanny 
S. Copeland and to Dr. R. W. Seton- Watson for their 
kindness and trouble in condensing my volume into 
an admirable English version, worthy in every way 
of the importance and gravity of the questions at 
issue. 

L. V. 

Paris, 

December 191 9. 



18 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 
TO THE READER . . . . . . .7 

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION . . . . . 27 

I. Illyrian Dalmatia, 12 a.d. — II. Roman Dalmatia, 
12-537 — III. Slavonic Dalmatia, 537-1102 — IV. From 
the Coronation of Koloman to the Sale of Dalmatia 
to Venice, 1102-1421 — Venetian Rule, 1421-1797 

CHAPTER I 

Slav character of Dalmatia — Venetian policy without national 
bias — Development of Slav literature in Dalmatia — The 
Dalmatian aristocracy — Ragusa — Jugoslav unity fore- 
shadowed since the sixteenth century — Dalmatian artists 
— Slav character of their work — Resistance offered by 
Dalmatian Slavdom to Venetian influence — The 
eighteenth century — The Italian language in Dalmatia 
— Summary of the Venetian rule . . . 99-122 



CHAPTER II 

Fall of Venice — Earliest movement in Dalmatia for union 
with Croatia (1797) — Illyrism (1830) — Niccolo Tommaseo 
— His genius — Tommaseo the herald of the Illyrian 
idea and the union of Dalmatia with the Serbo-Croat 
lands — The Scintille — The poem "Alia Dalmazia" — 
Zara and the Slav Congress in Prague (1848) — Cause 
and effect of the Dalmatian national movement — Dal- 
19 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

PAGE 

matian academic youth in Padua — Count Orsato Pozza 
— Slav activity of the Dalmatians in Padua and in 
Venice (1843-1849) — Events of 1848 and the Serbo-Croat 
War against Hungary — Nature of the Slavo-Magyar 
conflict — N. Tommaseo's attitude towards the move- 
ment of 1848— Speech of Count Cavour (20th October, 
1848)— Effects of the war .... 123-157 

CHAPTER III 

Absolutist regime in Austria and in Dalmatia — Dawn of 
Constitutionalism (1880) — Two parties in Dalmatia — 
Unionists and Autonomists — Electoral oligarchy of the 
Italian party — Tribute paid by all parties to the Slav 
character of Dalmatia — The Dalmatian Year Book — 
Declaration of the Dalmatian Autonomist party on the 
Slav character of Dalmatia — Bajamonti and his pro- 
gramme — His statements concerning the Slav character 
of Dalmatia (1864) — National movement in Zara — 
Foundation of II Nazionale and 77 Dalmata — Slav pro- 
gramme of the Autonomist paper II Dalmata (1866) — 
Slav tribute to Italian civilization in Dalmatia — The 
pamphlets Vote for the Union — Programme of the Slav 
Unionist paper II Nazionale .... 158-185 

CHAPTER IV 

Electoral triumph of the Slav Unionist party — Petition to 
the Crown (3rd September, 1870) — Popular suffrage in 
Dalmatia — Defection of the Autonomist party from the 
programme of 1866, and its subsequent vicissitudes — 
The Autonomist party at the cross-roads— Birth of the 
"Italian" Party (1874) — Tactics of the two parties — 
Liberal complexion of the Unionist programme — Croat 
invitation to the Dalmatians in i860 — Agitation of the 
Austrian Government against the Croatian proposal — 
Division between the two parties — Political mistakes — 
Defence of the Serbo-Croatian language — Negative 
character of the Italian programme. . . 186-214 

20 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



CHAPTER V 

PAGE 

Austrian persecution of Slav Unionist party in Dalmatia — 
The Austrian Government finds efficacious support in 
the Autonomist party — Gradual weakening of the con- 
flict between the Slavs and the Italian party — Schemes 
for reconciliation on the basis of a recognition of the 
Slav character of Dalmatia .... 215-231 



CHAPTER VI 

Serbo-Croat policy in the Habsburg Monarchy — Split in the 
Slav National party — Clericals and Liberals — Unani- 
mous proclamation of the national unity of the Serbo- 
Croat race — Attitude of Bajamonti — His declaration on 
the Serbo-Balkan position — Political differences be- 
tween Serbs and Croats — Croatia and Serbia in the past 
— Joint action of Serbs and Croats in historical crises — 
Croats and Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) — Serbo- 
Croat union in 1848 — Bishop Strossmayer — The Slav 
liturgy in Dalmatia — Serbo-Croat tribute to the 
Ragusan poet Gundulic, the prophet of National unity 
(1892) — National ballads in Dalmatia — Migrations and 
interminglings — Decisive influence of Serbia on the 
Jugoslav movement under Prince Michael Obrenovid 
(1866) — Moral adhesion of Dalmatia — Serbo-Croat 
Unionist programme outlined in the Florentine review, 
Nuova Antologia, by Count Orsato Pozza (1866) — In- 
different or hostile attitude of New Italy towards the 
Jugoslav movement — The voice of the dead . 232-264 



APPENDIX I 
AUSTRIA AND CROATIA (1859) .... 267 

APPENDIX II 
DALMATIA ....... 272 

21 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

APPENDIX III 

PAGE 
ZARA AND THE SLAV NATIONAL MOVEMENT . . . 277 

APPENDIX IV 
THE SLAV LITURGY IN DALMATIA .... 298 

APPENDIX V 

RULES OF THE TURIN CENTRAL SOCIETY FOR AN ITALO- 

SLAV ALLIANCE . . . . - . . 305 

APPENDIX VI 
MANIFESTO TO THE AUSTRIAN SLAVS (1848) . . . 308 

INDEX 313 



22 



BOOKS CONSULTED 

Atti Ufnciali della Dieta del Regno di Dalmazia (1860-1880). 
Cronistoria parlamentare dalmata (1861-1911). Zara, Tip. del 
" Nazionale," 191 1. 

Dalmatian Year Book by Ferrari-Cupilli. Spalato, V. Morpurgo, 
1860-61 (in Serbo-Croatian). 

Niccolo Tommaseo — Opere : 
II Secondo Esilio, 1862. 
Scintille, Ed. 1816. 

La Storia Civile nella Letteraria, 1872. 
Dizionario Estetico, 1852. 
II Serio nel Faceto, 1865. 
Canti Illirici, Ed. 1914. 
Ecc. 

Costantino Voinovich : 

Un Voto per l'Unione. Spalato, 1861 (in It.). 

Melchiore Lucianovich : 

Storia della Letteratura Serbo-Croata. Spalato. Ed. 
Zannoni, 1881 (in It.). 

Francesco Markovich : 

Orsato Pozza and the Illyrian movement. Zagreb, 1882 (in 
Serbo-Croatian). 

Orsato Pozza : 

La Serbia e l'lmpero d'Oriente. Nuova Antologia, 
Firenze, 1866. 

23 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

K. Jirecek : 

Geschichte der Serben. Gotha, J. Perthes, 191 1. 

F. Sissich : 

Dalmatia and the Hungaro-Croatian King Koloman. 

Zagreb, 1909 (in Serbo-Croatian). 

Walter Lenel : 

Die Entstehung der Vorherrschaft Venedigs an der Adria. 
Strassburg, 1897. 

L'Abbe Pisani : 

La Dalmatie de 1797-1815. Paris, Picard, 1893. 



24 



NOTE 

The author has decided to employ the Italian names of 
the coast towns and islands of Dalmatia, because the Euro- 
pean public at large is more familiar with them. But this 
is not to be taken as an indication that they are more ancient 
than the Slav names of the same towns. Moreover, public 
opinion in Europe would be gravely in error if it were to 
conclude from the Italian forms of these names that these 
Dalmatian towns were of ancient Italian origin, and if it 
were to believe that this circumstance furnished an indirect 
proof of hereditary " Italianity." Nothing could be more 
mistaken. All the names of the Dalmatian isles and towns 
of the littoral are of Illyrian or Gi'eek origin. Not one is of 
Latin or of Italian origin. And one — Sebenico (Sibenik) 
— is of Slav origin. Thus neither Italians nor Slavs can claim 
the sponsorship for these names. 

Zara and Ragusa are towns with Illyrian names. Spalato, 
Trau, Cattaro, Brazza, Lesina or Faria, Curzola, Meleda, 
are towns with Greek names. Thus the Illyrians and the 
Greeks, and neither the Italians nor the Slavs were the parents 
who named them. 

Take Zara, for instance, the Latin of which name is Jadera, 
which is an Illyrian name (the Latin title of the Archbishop 
of Zara is to this day Archiepiscopus Jadertinus) ; more- 
over, the Slav form " Zadar " is a far better rendering of the 
Illyrian form of " Jadera " than is the Italian " Zara " of 
far more recent date. 

The name of Ragusa is also of Illyrian origin. Both Raguz 
and Ragus occur in Bosnia as place-names. The Sicilian 
Ragusa is of Arab origin ; a by no means infrequent instance 
of morphological identity between two completely distinct 
languages. 

Dubrovnik, the Slav name of Ragusa, is not a translation. 

25 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

It is the name given in the eighth century by the Slavs to 
the little Graeco-Illyrian city of Ragusa, and it means the 
Grove of Oaks (Dub = Quercus). 

The same remarks apply to Spalato, Slav Spljet (from the 
Greek Aspalaton, and not from the Latin Palatium) ; to 
Trau, Slav Trogir (from the Greek Tragurion, more faithfully 
preserved in the Slav transcription) ; to Brazza, Slav Brae 
(from the Greek Brachia) ; to Curzola, Slav Korcula (from 
the Greek Corcyra) ; to Meleda, Slav Mljet (from the Greek 
Melita) ; to Faria (from the Greek Pharion, which the Slavs 
have accurately transcribed Hvav, whereas Lesina is a more 
recent designation) ; etc. 

An important Milanese paper went so far as to speak of 
the Slav nomenclature as " base travesties " (II Secolo, 
May 3, 191 7). The reader may judge of the correctness of 
this definition, which is, moreover, so insulting to all the 
Slavs. 

As regards the restoration of the Italian place-names, a 
work undertaken through the efforts of the Italian Geograph- 
ical Society, this is only one part of a well-known programme, 
which consists in disguising pure and simple conquest, anti- 
democratic annexation against the will of the people, so 
as to appear in accordance with the democratic principle 
of a national claim. This is the German system, condemned 
by Fustel de Coulanges, in his celebrated letter to Mommsen. 
But political and scientific Europe is on the alert ; it will 
speak at the proper place and time. 



26 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 

Since the beginning of the World War certain political 
circles have taken a delight in mystifying European 
public opinion in all matters concerning the Southern 
Slavs. They have even succeeded in making many 
people despair of obtaining veracious, succinct and 
convincing opinion on the subject, and have even 
begun to arouse doubts with regard to the most 
elementary facts of geography. 

No country has suffered more than Dalmatia 
from these attacks of bad faith, which have taken 
the form of a systematic compaign of mis-statement, 
alike in matters geographical, political and historical. 
It is then high time to place the true facts on record, 
to tear aside the tissue of lies which have obscured 
the history of the Eastern Adriatic shore, and to 
place Europe in possession of realities, such as they 
present themselves to the impartial observer. It 
is high time to dispel the mists which have so long 
obscured the features of a country that may be 
described as the very cradle of the Southern Slav 
Idea and of the national aspirations to which it 
has given birth. 

The Balkans form a peninsula like Italy and Spain. 
By a concourse of unfortunate historical circumstances 
they have not hitherto succeeded in winning unity 
and independence ; but that is not a reason for 

27 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

denying that they possess a character and nature 
of their own, and — despite the strata imposed by 
foreign civilization — a mission and a raison d'etre 
entirely distinct from that of the Italian or Iberian 
peninsulas. The 400 miles of the Eastern Adriatic 
coast, with their hinterland varying from 40 to 2 
miles in depth, and bordering upon three Serbo- 
Croat provinces — Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 
Montenegro — cannot be separated into isolated 
compartments. This coast and hinterland form 
a geological and geographical complement to the 
Slavo-Hellenic peninsula of the Balkans very far 
from their being an appendix of the orographic 
system of the Italian peninsula or being dominated 
by it. In the same way, from the political and 
national point of view, they form a single unit 
with the bordering Slav races. Without these 
countries they are nothing, without them they have 
no raison d'etre, nay, they cannot exist. With 
these countries they are everything. They represent 
a glorious and eventful page in the long secular 
struggle of the Serbo-Croat race towards crystalliza- 
tion and political unity. Without the Adriatic 
coast the famous Illyrian triangle between Bulgaria 
(Timok), Hungary, German- Austria (the Save and 
Drave), Albania and the ^Egean, would be a triangle 
no more. The Balkan peninsula would no longer 
be an island attached to the continent. The history 
of the Serbo-Croat people would be an insoluble 
riddle, its life an incident in the nomadic life of the 
nations. 

The sea is the world's consecration, the national 
essence of those countries whose shores it washes. 
Dalmatia, which forms the main portion of the eastern 

28 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Adriatic shore, has been the lists where two rival 
principles have done battle — the centrifugal principle 
of a foreign sovereignty resting upon a colonial 
and maritime base, and the centripetal principle of 
a race which possesses the soil and the sea, and tends 
to form a single state unit. In the western portion of 
the Balkan peninsula Dalmatia plays exactly the 
same part as the coast of Venice and Ravenna in 
the eastern portion of the Appennine peninsula. 
Expressed differently, the eastern Adriatic coast 
forms the lung of the Serbo-Croat nation, just as 
the eastern coast of the Black Sea forms the lung 
of the Bulgarian nation. To deprive an individual 
or a nation of its lungs is to condemn it to death, 
without a chance of appeal. As long as the peoples 
of the hinterland of the Dalmatian coast or the 
Governments which ruled them, whether in pre- 
Slavonic or Slavonic times, still hoped to possess 
the coast and thus to breathe freely the Adriatic 
breezes, so long did they struggle, to the last drop 
of blood, for the possession of Dalmatia — in other 
words, for their maritime heritage. 

It was only when all was extinguished to the east 
of Dalmatia, when all native States — the Kingdom 
of Croatia, the Servian Empire, the Kingdom of 
Bosnia, the Croato-Hungarian Kingdom — had become 
dependent that Venice could definitely lay hands on 
Dalmatia ; and even then she only held it in a 
negative sense, not as an Italian, but as an Oriental 
Power. She held it lest the Turks should acquire 
it and lest the capital of her maritime Empire should 
be attacked by the fleets of the Sultan. Thus the 
existence of the Ottoman Empire was the condition 
upon which Venetian sovereignty, as at a later 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

date Austrian sovereignty, depended. The Slav 
districts were retained as colonies and garrisons 
against the Turks. After the fall of Venice the 
Habsburg Empire replaced her. The recent collapse 
of Turkey in Europe was the first great act in the 
drama of the deliverance of Dalmatia and other 
kindred Slav countries. The second act is the 
disappearance of Austrian domination. The prologue 
was the fall of Venetian rule. It is this rhythm 
which provides the clue to the whole history of 
Dalmatia. That province never played any part 
whatever in the political and national life of the 
Italian peninsula, save perhaps in the days of Rome 
and in the same sense as Gaul, Spain and Britain. 
Dalmatia could be a fragment of an empire without 
any national label. But no sooner did a national 
Power become apparent in the Balkans, than the 
Eastern Adriatic coast at once became conscious 
of its national attraction. This is the natural result 
of Dalmatia's geographical situation, as also is the 
axiomatic truth that no Power has ever succeeded 
in holding Dalmatia for long, without at the same 
time holding its hinterland. The two Serbo-Croat 
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina are indissolubly 
bound to Dalmatia, as was admitted even by the 
champions of Dalmatian autonomy and by the few 
Italian statesmen who have devoted impartial study 
to the Balkan problem. If Venice was able to 
retain Dalmatia, while forced to abandon almost the 
whole of Bosnia, it was because behind Dalmatia 
she had Turkey, and above all the weak and corrupt 
Turkey of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
But in the days of the great Sultans of the sixteenth 
century Dalmatia was on the eve of being conquered 

30 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

by the Turks, and powerful Christian leagues had to 
be organized in order to prevent the eastern coast of 
the Adriatic Sea from becoming a Turkish province. 
In spite of all this, in spite also of the Homeric struggles 
of the Dalmatian people against the Turks, the latter 
more than once occupied large tracts of Dalmatian 
territory — for example the county of Vrana near 
Zara, which belonged to the Sandjak of the Lika 
till 1647 ; the fortress district of Klis (Clissa), near 
Spalato in 1537 > an d even for a certain time the 
whole of Dalmatia as far as the Narenta, save the 
coast towns and the county of Castelnuovo, near 
Cattaro. 

It was only the Battle of Lepanto (1571) which 
averted the danger. But if the Turks had been 
driven from Bosnia in the seventeenth century, the 
victorious Power which replaced them would undoubt- 
edly have wrested Dalmatia from their hands. 
The Republic of Ragusa awaited from the Empire, 
which had become the repository of Serbo-Croat 
national rights, the deliverance of Dalmatia from 
Venetian rule. But the Empire was weak and had 
to seek an alliance with Venice, which profited 
from this fact and from the victories of the Great 
Powers (the Germans, the Pope and the Poles) by 
retaining Dalmatia. But Venetian sovereignty, we 
repeat, was Oriental in character, like its sovereignty 
over the Ionian Islands, the Morea and Crete. 
Venice occupied Dalmatia as a military colony, 
and her rule was merely a long " provisorium," 
which affected no change of any kind in the men- 
tality of Dalmatia or in the broad lines of her 
history. 

It may be laid down as an axiom that every civil 

31 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Power which rests its might and prestige upon the 
consent of its peoples, is forced, if it possesses Bosnia, 
to acquire also its coast line, Dalmatia. It is an 
historical law of mutual dependence, that only re- 
mained in abeyance during the abnormal situation 
which pitted the Ottoman Empire against the mari- 
time Republic at a period when the principle of nation- 
ality as a political force cannot be said to have 
existed. 

Like every country still gravitating towards 
its national orbit and deprived by an unhappy fate 
of the appeasement which a national government 
brings in its train, Dalmatia reckons the centuries of 
her existence by the various foreign regimes by 
which she has been exploited. .The main features 
which have dominated her history have been on the 
one hand the vacuum formed around her by the col- 
lapse of the various attempts on the part of the Slavs 
to group themselves politically in the Balkans, and 
on the other hand by the presence of a Great Power 
which has been at one and the same time Eastern 
and Western in character, and whose existence 
depended upon the control of the routes leading to 
the Mediterranean. Yet, despite all this, throughout 
these various regimes, and above all during the cen- 
turies of Venetian rule, Dalmatia has shown her 
attachment to the race which since time imme- 
morial has struck root in her soil. 

The history of Dalmatia till the close of the eigh- 
teenth century may be divided into five distinct 
periods : — 

(i) Illyrian Dalmatia to the Roman Conquest 
(12 A.D.) 

32 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

(2) Dalmatia as a Roman province (12-537). 

(3) Dalmatia, under Byzantine rule, becomes a 

Slav country and forms part of a Slavonic 
Kingdom until the extinction of the Croat 
dynasty (537-1102). 

(4) The Dalmatian Communes, the formation 

of the Slavonic States, and the struggle 
between Venice and Hungary (1102-1420). 

(5) Dalmatia under Venetian rule (1420-1796). 

We propose to pass these various periods in rapid 
review. 

I. Illyrian Dalmatia. 

The first known inhabitants of Dalmatia are the 
Illyrians, and it was an Illyrian tribe established 
between the rivers Krka and Narenta which gave 
its name to the province. These Illyrians may have 
been a proto-Slav branch ; and recently there has 
been a revival of the theory of the Slavonic origin 
of the Illyrians. In any case Dalmatia, from the 
first days of her known history, appears to have been 
inhabited by one of the numerous tribes of the Balkan 
peninsula, having nothing in common with the 
races which formed the original structure of the 
Italian peninsula. From the first half of the fourth 
century B.C. numerous Celtic elements became 
mingled with the blood of the Illyrians, while all 
along the coast the Phoenicians and Greeks established 
themselves. Towards 390 B.C. we find the Syracusans 
on the island of Issa (Lissa) and about 385 B.C. 
on the island of Pharia (Lesina). Other Greek 
colonies were Corcyra Nigra (Curzola), Melita (Meleda), 
Ladosta (Lagosta), Brattia (Brazza), and Solentia 

33 c 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

(Solta). A little later on were built on the 
Dalmatian mainland the towns of Tragurium (Trau) 
and Epetium (Stobrec, near Spalato). 

The Illyrian kingdom was a thorn in the flesh 
of Roman Imperialism. It was destroyed, but 
only after a series of bloody battles, which bear a 
striking resemblance to the struggles sustained by 
the Gauls against the Romans, and in modern times 
to the struggle of the Serbians against the Ottoman 
Conquest and the later Imperialist campaign of 
Austria. The Illyrian nation and the Dalmatians, 
its most courageous tribe, strikingly resemble the 
Serbians and Croats in character ; and if science 
has not formed a final verdict on the Slavonic origin 
of the Illyrian nation, the moral proof of this paternity 
may be found in a constant tradition and in the 
enthusiasm displayed by the Croats and Serbs for 
these early possessors of Dalmatian soil. 

Queen Teuta, of whom the Croat poets of Illyrism 
sing, played the same part as Vercingetorix in Gaul. 
She and her successors resisted for many years the 
efforts of Rome. But in 168 B.C. her dynasty went 
down in blood, and Illyria south of the Narenta be- 
came a Roman province. Still this was only the 
beginning of the struggle. The great campaign against 
the Dalmatians, whose capital was at Delminium 
(Duvno in Herzegovina), and who opposed all the 
Roman Senate's schemes for the colonization of 
Dalmatia, lasted for over a century of terrible blood- 
shed (156-33 B.C.). It ended with the submission 
of the Dalmatians, who yielded hostages to Augustus 
and were forced to pay an annual tribute to Rome. 
The Liburnian fleet was destroyed at the same time. 
Even this peace proved to be a mere armistice ; 

34 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

for the Dalmatians rose and concluded an alliance 
with the peoples of Pannonia (6 B.C.). Augustus 
dispatched seven legions to Dalmatia under Tiberius, 
Germanicus, Marcus Lepidus and Silvanus Plautius. 
Finally the first of these generals quelled all resistance 
and in a.d. 12 Illyrian independence was at an end. 

II. Roman Dalmatia. 

Rome civilized and partially Romanized Dalmatia. 
At the same time she civilized the hinterland, which 
henceforth shared the destiny of the eastern Adriatic 
coast. The Imperial Power, uniform, anational 
and firmly organized on the model of the Eternal 
City, survived for five centuries in Dalmatia. Adapt- 
ing herself to the geographical situation of her new 
province, Rome linked her on the one hand with Istria 
and the Save, and on the other hand with the Albanian 
river Drin and eastwards with the interior of Bosnia. 
This is indeed more or less what is demanded by the 
Serbs and Croats of the twentieth century. Add 
to it Serbia and Macedonia, and we have the Jugo- 
slav State of the future. Such is the force of facts, 
before which even the mistress of the ancient world 
was ready to bow. 

In the second century of our era Dalmatia enjoyed 
profound peace. Pax Romana ! The Antonines 
erected magnificent buildings at Zara (Jadera) and 
at Burnum, a once flourishing town between Kistanje 
and Knin, which was destroyed by the Avars in 
639. Dalmatia was divided into three convcntus : 
Scardona on the river Krka, Salona between the 
Krka and the Narenta, and Narona to the south of 
Narenta. Later on, the Emperor Diocletian separated 

35 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the latter from Dalmatia, and formed it into a dis- 
tinct province under the name of Praevalitana 
(what is now North Albania and South Dalmatia). 
Even before the Roman Conquest the coast towns 
possessed municipal statutes, and thus it is not to 
Rome that they owe them. But Rome developed 
still further the municipal system, and this enabled 
the towns to make their mark in Dalmatian history, 
and to check completely the efforts of Croat and 
Hungarian feudalism to secure all power in their 
own hands. This ancient municipal spirit played, 
for over a thousand years after the Roman Conquest, 
a decisive part in Serbo-Croat history ; for it was 
always from Dalmatia that the fiercest protests 
against the oppression of feudalism and officialdom 
in Croatia and Bosnia proceeded. 

The principal towns were Jadera, Salona, Aequum 
(near Sinj), Narona and Epidaurum, and these bore 
the title of " Colonies." Scardona was a Municipium. 
There were also the Oppida and the Tribus. Architec- 
tural development in Dalmatia was superior to that 
of the provinces north of the Alps. Christianity 
presided over an admirable blend of Greek art and 
the ideas of the new age. Dalmatia became the 
classic soil on which took place a new evolution of 
Roman architecture and the solemn transition from 
antique to early Christian art. The palace of Dio- 
cletian, and the temples of Jupiter and iEsculapius 
at Spalato, actually built within the precincts of 
Diocletian's palace after the destruction of Salona, 
are immortal examples of this historic epoch. 
Nor must it be supposed that the Roman occupation 
established itself in a mere desert. The Illyrian 
people continued to exist, and to play indirectly 

36 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

an extremely important role in the Roman Empire. 
Numerous Illyrians took service under the Caesars. 
Several Illyrian generals wore the imperial diadem — 
Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus, Carus, and greatest 
of all, Diocletian (284-313), whose character recalls 
the fundamental traits of the Slav race — violence 
alternating with generosity and that philosophic 
melancholy which led him back from the Imperial 
throne to the fields of his native province. This 
Emperor, whom the Illyrian nation gave to Rome 
as a mediator between the East and the West, was 
the first representative of the symbolic mission of 
Dalmatia to the Slavs in face of the Latin world. 

Dalmatia, then, did not become Roman as a result 
of occupation by the Roman legions. The example 
of Roumania would suffice to bring out the radical 
difference between these two historical phenomena. 

From this period onwards there has been in Dalmatia 
a blending of races, and Latin blood has mingled with 
Illyrian and with Greek. This mixture formed the 
woof of Dalmatian life until the arrival of new 
Slavonic tribes, which, attaching themselves to the 
Illyrian stock, definitely Slavized the country. In 
the coast towns the Roman element survived side 
by side with the Slav element among the patricians, 
some of whom were conscious of their Roman origin, 
as late as the fifteenth century. We may quote 
as example the Archdeacon Thomas of Spalato 
(d. 1268), Micha Madii de Barbazanis of Spalato 
(d. 1358) and Elias Lampridio Cerva of Ragusa 
(d. 1520). But this Roman element could not 
resist the influence of Slavdom in the neighbouring 
countries ; above all, in the north of Dalmatia, where 
it, through intermarriage, completely transformed 

37 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dalmatian society. From the eleventh century 
onwards the patrician families of Zara came to be 
allied by marriage with the Croat princes, the families 
of Ragusa and Cattaro with the princes of Serbia. 
The development of the Dalmatian cities in the 
Middle Ages, the civic rights granted to powerful 
Slav families, and on the other hand Asiatic epi- 
demics, especially the plague of 1348, contributed 
powerfully to the almost total extinction of the old 
Roman families. The Patriciate of Ragusa in the 
seventeenth century, in contrast to the Humanists 
of the fifteenth century, was conscious of being Slav 
and openly proclaimed the fact, as may be seen 
from the famous chronicles of Mauro Orbini and 
Giacomo Luccari. Thus Roman rule in Dalmatia 
has only left the impression of a brilliant civilization 
and a few memories in one section of the Dalmatian 
aristocracy. 

All along the coast, even after the Slavs took 
possession, a Roman idiom was spoken which never 
exercised any influence upon Dalmatian culture, 
and which for lack of spiritual nourishment died 
out in a world which understood it no longer. 

Meanwhile the Roman spirit, the municipal idea 
and the leaning towards the West and Latin culture, 
made its way among the Slavs as an inspiration and 
a programme, although assailed on all sides by the 
new and vigorous Slav forces and by influences 
from the East. At bottom it was a leaven which 
imparted to the Slav nationality of the country 
a taste for what is good, a sense of Humanism and 
of the civic spirit. Venice was to do nothing more 
than this. If she had found a true Latin element 
in the country, she would have Italianized it, adding 

38 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

a certain Venetian tinge. But she found a Slavonic 
people, impervious to Latinization, and hence she 
refrained from the attempt. 



III. Slavonic Dalmatia. 

The storms which beat upon the Balkan countries, 
including Dalmatia, are in themselves a sufficient 
explanation of the extinction of Roman influence. 
From the year 375 the Goths and Huns hurled them- 
selves against the province and destroyed its magnifi- 
cent and flourishing Roman art and the prosperity 
of its towns. 

Theodosius the Great died at Milan in 395, after 
having partitioned all the Roman world between 
his two sons, Honorius in the west, Arcadius in the 
east. Western Illyria (Noricum, upper and lower 
Pannonia, upper Moesia and the Save basin, Liburnia 
and Dalmatia) fell to the share of the west, but the 
Byzantines definitely established their hold upon it 
in 537. Dalmatia was attached to the Exarchate of 
Ravenna, with a Catapan (Captain) at Salona. There 
came an orgy of arbitrary corruption, of careless neglect 
for a distant province which was regarded as barbarous. 
Fiscal exactions and forcible enrolments for distant 
wars in Persia and elsewhere prepared a favourable 
soil for the peaceful invasion of the Slavs in the sixth 
and seventh centuries. The Avars preceded them 
and completed the destruction which the Goths 
had begun. The decisive date in Dalmatian history 
on the eve of the Middle Ages is the final destruction 
of the splendid city of Salona (639). Epidaurum 
and Rizinium shared the same fate. It is to this 
disaster, which overtook the Imperial cities, that 

39 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Dalmatian towns of Spalato and Ragusa owe 
their origin. 

This was the culminating point of the Slav advance. 
Of late years an attempt has been made to propagate 
the erroneous theory of a sudden inroad of Slavonic 
hordes into Roman Dalmatia : but nothing could 
be more untrue. It is of course obvious that the 
Norman conquests of England and of Sicily, the 
arrival of the Franks and the Magyars, and other 
similar incidents in history have all borne a character 
of violence. But the establishment of the Slavs 
in Dalmatia was not achieved suddenly in the form 
of a military expedition. It was, on the contrary, 
a slow and progressive movement, during which the 
existing elements were gradually displaced and 
new Slav stocks grafted upon them. The Slav 
origin of the Illyrians, to which we have already 
referred, acquires more and more the character of 
historical certitude in the light of modern Slavistic 
studies. It is a remarkable fact that Tommaseo 
clearly divined this, and in one of his books * laid 
down two fundamental principles, racial attraction 
and the migratory instinct. 

" If the new inhabitants of a district," he writes, " inherit 
the traditions and manners of the old, if they mingle with 
them their blood and if, while imprinting upon the climate 
their habits, they resemble them and, at least to some extent, 
continue their history, it cannot on the other hand be denied 
that the original inhabitants, who draw their inspiration from 
the same soil and the same sky, and who receive from these 
the impressions and sensations of external objects, are in 
some degree the precursors and almost as it were the prophets 
of the peoples who are destined to succeed them on the 

1 La storia civile nella Letteraria, p. 547. 
40 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

same soil. The title of ' Slavs ' which is given to the men 
who preceded the real Slav migrations in Europe, leads me 
to think that new migrations of peoples very often gravitate 
in the direction of kindred races, as the result alike of 
very ancient traditions and very new impulses." 

The recent conclusions of Science seem to justify 
the intuitions of the great Dalmatian. 

But whether or not the Slavs and Illyrians belong 
to the same stock, the incontestable fact in Dalmatian 
history is that Dalmatia has been Slav since the seventh 
century. The Croats and the Serbs — two tribes of 
the same nation, as the Bavarians and the Saxons 
are two Teutonic tribes — divided Dalmatia between 
them, the Croats in the north and the Serbs in the 
south. While acknowledging the suzerainty of the 
Byzantine Emperor, as did Venice herself up to 
the end of the eleventh century, these two peoples 
henceforth decided the destinies of Dalmatia, whose 
fate was thus definitely linked to the fate of Slavdom 
between the Save and the Adriatic. As long as the 
Croats and Serbs preserved, under whatever form, 
their national sovereignty, Dalmatia was national 
in her outlook. As the political experiments of 
the Slavs prove abortive, so Dalmatia tends to fall 
under foreign rule and, no longer the necessary 
complement to a national state, sinks to the level 
of a mere maritime colon}' and a corridor leading 
its conquerors onward. 

The waves of Slav invasion followed each other 
with greater frequency after the fall of Rome and 
under the feeble Emperors of Byzantium. The 
transfer of hegemony from west to east worked out 
to the advantage of the Serbs and above all of the 
Croats. While the coast towns still obeyed Byzan- 

41 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tium, the mainland no longer recognized any one 
save the Croat Zupans, and is from this period 
onward completely Slavized. 

The ninth century is characterized by the efforts 
to unify the Croats and Serbs and even by a still 
more ambitious attempt to bring all the Jugoslav 
countries together. From 805 to 822 the Frankish 
Empire hampered every effort at organization on 
the part of the Croat people, which thus from its 
very outset was confronted by the hostility of, west 
and east, of Frank and Byzantine. But a man 
arose in the midst of chaos, and between 819 and 822 
Ljudevit Posavski roused the Slav peoples in revolt, 
defeated the Franks and imposed his authority upon 
the Croats of Pannonia, the Slovenes and the Danubian 
Serbs. Thus, for a moment all the Jugoslav countries 
between the Save and the Timok obeyed a single 
authority. But this effort was speedily shattered 
by the two Great Powers, which at Aachen in 822 
divided between them the Serbo-Croat lands. 
Dalmatian Croatia between the rivers Cetina and 
Vrbas were assigned to the Emperor Louis the Pious, 
while Dalmatia proper, with all the coast towns, 
remained under Byzantine sovereignty. 

In 839 Venice enters upon the scene. There are 
sanguinary struggles with the Narentans, who had 
founded a small but redoubtable Serb State at the 
mouth of the Narenta. These are the Slav Vikings. 
The Doge Pietro Tradonico opens the series of great 
Venetians whose task it is to execute the programme 
of the wonderful city of the lagoons. This new 
maritime Power, half Eastern, half Latin, sets itself 
to acquire the great commerce of the Levant, and 
during this period lays the foundations of its future 

42 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

greatness, by setting a guard upon the only road by 
which it can reach its rivals or lay hands upon the 
East. This road is the Adriatic. This corridor 
of penetration, which is at the same time the strategic 
link, is Dalmatia. Venice is the mediator between 
east and west, awaiting the moment when she is 
to become the temple of beauty and wisdom. Attached 
by a mere thread to the Italian continent, she finds 
her whole life upon the sea. She is bound to prevent 
the growth of another state upon the opposite coast, 
for such a state would strangle her. Hence the 
gigantic efforts made by this Rome of the Seas to 
secure the uncontested mastery of the Adriatic. 
But on the opposite coast the Slavs are slowly 
crystallizing ; and this process of state-formation 
must be arrested, since on it depended the life or 
death of the city of St. Mark. Already in the ninth 
century Europe is confronted with the Southern 
Slav question, which is still unsolved to-day. 

In the north of Dalmatia there was a Prince of 
the Croats, in the south a Prince of the Narentans. 
At St. Martin, on the territory which was afterwards 
to form the county of Poljica, the Doge Tradonico 
concluded a treaty of peace with the Croat Prince 
Mislav and with the Narentan Prince Druzak, but 
the latter's subjects resumed the struggle in 840 
and won the upper hand. Venice, in order to combat 
them, was obliged to conclude a treaty with King 
Lothair, son of the Emperor Louis the Pious (840). 

Mislav's successor Trpimir (845-864) took the title 
of Dux Chroatorum. He had two residences, at 
Klis, near Spalato, and at Bihac, near Trau. Thanks 
to the struggle of Byzantium against the Arabs and 
Bulgarians, the Dalmatian towns were able to develop 

43 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

their autonomy. They became the third factor in 
the Adriatic struggle, the stake between the Slavs 
and Venetians. Jealous of their municipal statutes, 
but too feeble to defend them by their own unaided 
strength, they invariably submitted to the suzerainty 
of whoever offered them the fullest guarantees of 
autonomy. This is the reason why they recognized 
Byzantine supremacy until the eleventh century 
and held aloof from the quarrel between the Venetians 
and the Slavs. Towards the end of the ninth 
century we have three Jugoslav states — a Dalmatian 
Croatia extending through Bosnian territory to the 
Bulgarian frontier x ; continental Serbia, divided 
into several tiny principalities ; and Croat Pannonia 
along the Save and the Drave. Between 864 and 
876 Domagoj, Prince of the Croats, resided at Knin 
in Dalmatia, and in 865 was involved in a fresh war 
with the Doge Orso Particiaco. Domagoj 's successor, 
Branimir (879-892) presided over the first struggle 
between the Latin and Greek influences in the Church. 
The Croat bishopric of Nona (Nin) became the citadel 
of Slavism. Though it had always depended upon 
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Branimir detached 
it, and made submission to Pope John VIII on 
21st May, 879. From this date the Croats have been 
attached to Rome, and the two Slav peoples have 
been the playthings of the historic rivalry of the 
two churches. At the Council of Constantinople 
(869-880) the Eastern Emperor and the Patriarch 
won the day, but renounced the Croat principality, 
which henceforth played the part of an independent 
state. Almost at the same time there broke out in 

1 The Bulgarians held at this moment a portion of Bosnia, and 
soon cast covetous eyes upon the Adriatic. 

44 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dalmatia a liturgical conflict between Slav and Latin. 
The Popes had allowed Mass to be celebrated in 
the Slavonic tongue, the language of the Apostles 
Cyril and Methodius. During the tenth and eleventh 
centuries there was an incessant struggle between 
the Latin bishops of the coast towns and the bishops 
of the inland towns of Dalmatia. Commencing in 
885, this struggle is still not finished to-day ! Every 
available means was tried to deprive the Slav popula- 
tions of the Slav liturgical language. The bishops of 
maritime Dalmatia accused them of " Arianism " — 
just as long afterwards the political Slav movement 
was to be denounced as " Russian " or " Austrian." 
The Dalmatians are tough material, and the conflict 
assumed the proportions of a struggle between two 
political conceptions. In reciting the main facts 
we may depart from our scheme of chronology — 
the more so as the political situation during the period 
in review always remains the same. Venice is only 
visible in the distance, taking no active part in the 
conflict ; Dalmatia seems to be in a current that is 
purely Slav. 

In 925 the first big provincial Council was held 
at Spalato. The Dalmatian bishops and abbots, 
Gregor}', Bishop of Nona, the Croat king Tomislav, 
certain Serbian magnates driven out by a Bulgarian 
invasion, and the Serbian prince Michael of Zahumlje 
(the Herzegovina of to-day), all took part. It was 
thus already a Serbo-Croat demonstration in Dalmatia. 
At this famous Council the Archbishop of Spalato 
was proclaimed Metropolitan of the whole Adriatic 
littoral, from the river Arsa in Istria as far as Cattaro. 
This may fairly be regarded as a solemn affirmation 
of the Slavonic character of the eastern shore, and 

45 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

as an ecclesiastical concentration tending to make 
good the lack of political unity. In vain the prelates 
of the Latin party cried out against heresy ; the 
Council could not be induced to condemn the Slavonic 
liturgy. 

In 928 a second council was held at Spalato ; 
and the archbishopric, which was regarded as of 
apostolic origin, was once more proclaimed the 
Metropolitan See of all the Croat countries. The 
bishopric of Nona was suppressed. 

The third Council of Spalato took place in 1060. 
The struggle between the Latin and Slavonic clergy 
assumed the proportions of a civil war. The Slavonic 
liturgy was abolished, as were also such Byzantine 
practices as the marriage of the priesthood and 
the wearing of beards. These decisions were ratified 
by Pope Alexander II, but they were only accepted 
by the higher clergy and the great nobles ; the 
lesser nobility and the lower clergy remained loyal 
to the Slav liturgy, and struggles broke out in 
Dalmatia and Croatia. The Pope sent a Legate 
to Dalmatia. Three new bishoprics were created 
at Knin, Belgrade (Zara Vecchia) and Trau. The 
diocese of Knin included all the Croat districts as 
far as the Drave, while the diocese of Spalato extended 
up to Zagreb. 

At a fourth Council held in 1076, when Venice 
had already possessed herself of some of the Dalma- 
tian towns, the differences between Latins and 
Croats were smoothed over, and tolerance was granted 
to the Slav liturgy. For eight centuries the conflict 
slumbered. The people continued to pray in Slav 
in the dioceses of Veglia, Zara, Sebenico and above 
all Spalato, and identically the same problem pre- 

46 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

sented itself in the nineteenth century, in the very 
same terms, aggravated by the hostile intervention 
of Austria. The Italianizers and the Austrians 
joined hands against the Slavonic character of the 
Dalmatian Church, while the Popes wavered in 
their decision, though without ever going so far as 
to suppress the Slav liturgy. Amid the countless 
war aims of the present struggle there stands side by 
side with the liberation of the Slavs the solution of 
a problem, which though purely ecclesiastical in origin, 
has become political and national. 

The whole of the ninth century was filled with 
sanguinary struggles between the Narentans and the 
Venetians. In 8yy the Venetian fleet was defeated 
near Makarska and the Doge Pietro Candiano perished 
in the fight. The Croats and Narentans imposed 
a tribute (solidus census) upon Venice and the 
Dalmatian towns, this latter tribute being decreed 
by the Emperor Basil for the benefit of the Croat 
princes to whom all Dalmatia up to the town gates 
belonged. The towns paid to the Croatian treasury 
an annual sum of 720 golden ducats, and this they 
continued to do until the year 1107. Nothing 
short of a formidable naval expedition under the 
Doge Pietro Orseolo II availed to free Venice from 
this tribute. 

Meanwhile the Croatian State developed steadily, 
and indeed this first attempt at the political grouping 
of the Jugoslavs did not encounter any serious enemy. 
There was no obstacle on its path. Europe had 
not yet emancipated itself from the Carlovingian 
Empire. In the France which had been created 
by the Treaty of Verdun (843) there reigned Eudes, 
Count of Paris. In England, Alfred the Great 

47 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

was laying the foundations of maritime power and 
political liberty. The Empire of the East maintained 
itself by a miraculous feat of balancing, and was 
preparing its moral and religious divorce from the 
West. The Papacy was feeble. The Magyars were 
as yet only visible on the horizon. Venice was 
hesitating between the monarchical tendencies of 
a few great families (the Particiaco, the Candiano 
and the Orseolo) and the popular tendency which 
favoured the proud commune's free commercial 
expansion. This, if ever, was the moment for the 
Slav peoples between the Danube and the Adriatic 
to organize themselves as a political unit, to throw off 
every foreign yoke, and to create finally in south- 
east Europe something with solid foundations and 
a vitality of its own, bound by close sympathies 
with Western civilization. As a matter of fact the 
efforts of the Croats follow an ascending scale, in 
close collaboration with Serbian efforts further south, 
and awaiting the moment when these two branches 
of the Southern Slavs should blend in a single State. 
Mutimir's successor Tomislav intervened in the 
quarrels between the Serb princes. Peter Gojnikovic 
made himself master of the Narentan district, while 
the large islands of Lissa, Brazza and Lesina belonged 
to the Croat princes. Peter was soon conquered by 
his rival Michael Visovic (910-913), who called in 
the Bulgars as his allies, seized Prince Peter and 
conquered the whole littoral from the river Cetina 
to the Drina, in other words to the water-shed 
between Bosnia and Serbia. Thereupon the Croat 
prince Tomislav in 914 assumed the title of King 
of the Croats. It was to him that the Eastern 
Emperor Romanus II, threatened by the Bulgarian 

48 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Tsar Simeon, ceded all the towns and islands of 
Dalmatia, while at the same time coming to terms 
with the Papacy. Thus the Dalmatian coast was 
separated from the Eastern Empire and became 
politically Slav (Croat). The southern part of the 
province, Ragusa and Cattaro, recognized the suzer- 
ainty of the Serbian prince Michael. But the Bul- 
garian Tsar turned back from Byzantium and in 
924 declared war on the Serbian prince Zachary, 
who was tortured to death. The Serbian lands 
were incorporated with Bulgaria ; and Croatia and 
Michael's principality became its neighbours. This 
is the moment of the first migration of the Serbs 
to Croatia. From the year 925 Tomislav was king, 
with the consent of Pope John X, and all Pannonian 
Croatia and almost all the Dalmatian coast with its 
islands belonged to him. It was a brilliant beginning, 
which coincided in time with the first blending of 
Serb and Croat. No purely political organization 
ever prevailed permanently against the persistence 
with which the race reaffirms its desire for national 
unity. 

Under King Tomislav's successors, Kresimir I 
(930-945) and Michael Kresimir II (949-969), Bosnia 
began to develop a separatist policy, the Serbs shook 
off Bulgarian rule, while the towns and islands of 
Dalmatia belonged to the Narentans, who were 
defeated in 948 by the Venetians. But Zara, Salona, 
Spalato and Clissa recognized the authority of the 
Croatian king. Under Stephen Drzislav (969-995) 
there was a fresh Bulgarian invasion, and Tsar 
Samuel overran Serbia, Bosnia, Syrmia and the 
Adriatic coast south of the Cetina. He occupied 
Zahumlje, Travunia, Dioclea (the present Herzegovina 

49 d 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and Montenegro) and the whole of the Narentan 
region. His armies invaded the territory of Zara, 
but did not dare to attack Croatia proper. 

All these wars bear the character of mediaeval 
migratory invasion. The Balkan Peninsula, which 
had already become almost entirely Slavized, was 
seeking for an outlook and a direction. The waves 
break over it now from east to west, now from west 
to east. But for the intervention of hostile elements 
from without it is more than probable that a terri- 
torial and national solution would have been found ; 
but foreign influence interfered with the attempts 
at unification at the very moment when it seemed 
about to succeed. It is for the twentieth century 
to liquidate this legacy of the Middle Ages. Among 
peoples of the same stock, extending from the 
shores of the Black Sea to the Adriatic and the 
Triglav, it is the most gifted and civilized that will, 
in the long run, gain the upper hand. The germ of 
this struggle is to be found towards the year iooo 
in the first armed contact with the Bulgars, and 
in the efforts of the Croatian Kingdom, which after 
its own eclipse was to hand on its task to the old 
Serbian Empire. 

The politic attitude adopted by the Eastern Empire 
towards the young Croat Power is an unanswerable 
proof of the important place won by the latter in 
the Balkans. In point of fact, the Basileus sent, 
in 986, the royal insignia to King Drzislav, who 
then proclaimed himself Rex Croatice et Dalmatics. 
It is significant that the title of King of Dalmatia 
is of Byzantine origin. The spirit of legalism which 
dominated all mediaeval transactions may be seen 
in the fact that a patrician family of Zara, perhaps 

50 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Columna, after acting for several generations 
as Byzantine deputies in the town, allied itself to 
the Croat royal family ; and it was this which led 
the latter to regard itself as entitled to assume the 
royal Dalmatian title. The possession was national, 
but the nudum jus expressed in the title was 
Byzantine. 

Meanwhile Venice grew, and her need for expansion 
became irresistible. Under the Orseolo she became 
more conscious of her power. The successor of 
King Drzislav was a weakling, and Venice profited 
by the fact to conclude with Byzantium an agree- 
ment by which the Emperor ceded to her the sove- 
reignty of the Dalmatian towns and islands. A 
certain respect for legality presided over the conquest, 
and Byzantium ceded its barren rights over a distant 
coast to those who offered it the greatest material 
advantages or whose hostility it feared for the moment. 

That the panic commonly believed to have pre- 
vailed in the year iooo — owing to the predicted end 
of the world — never really existed, is proved by the 
Venetian expedition to Dalmatia. It was on May 
9th, 1000, that the Doge Pietro Orseolo II, after 
refusing to pay the annual tribute to the Croat 
king Svetoslav, started upon his triumphal Dalma- 
tian campaign. It marked the entry of the Republic 
of St. Mark upon the scene, as conqueror of the whole 
Adriatic shore. The Croatian fleet was defeated 
near Zara. The islands of the Ouarnero, the towns 
of Zara, Trau and Spalato and even Ragusa, which 
already were assuming airs of independence, at once 
submitted to the great Doge. Belgrade (Zara 
Vecchia) and the islands of Curzola and Lagosta 
were conquered by force of arms. It is a remark- 

51 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

able fact that this is the first and only Venetian 
expedition to Dalmatia which did not meet with 
opposition on the part of the Dalmatian Communes. 
Was it because the Roman element was still suffi- 
ciently important in the towns, and because the 
privileges of an oligarchy were seriously menaced 
by the incoming Slavs, who in demanding rights of 
citizenship were backed up by the Croatian Crown ? 
We do not know. But in any case the Venetian 
occupation encountered no serious defence. The 
interview which the Doge had at Trau with Svetoslav's 
successor, Kresimir III (d. 1030), perhaps contri- 
buted to this result. It was a memorable event 
in Dalmatian history, which hastened the fusion 
between the Slav and Roman elements, between 
the nobles and the citizens. 1 

The King renounced the tribute from Venice and 
allowed the Doge to assume the title of Dux 
Dalmatice. This agreement was followed by the 
marriage of Orseolo's daughter with King Kresimir's 
son Stephen (1008), which was followed three years 
later by the marriage of the Doge's son Otho with 
the daughter of St. Stephen, the King of Hungary. 
It was thus that the two royal Houses of Croatia 
and Hungary, the Kresimirovic and the Arpads, 
formed an alliance under the auspices of Venice. 
This decisive event influenced the whole history 
of Croatia and Dalmatia. Hungary was to acquire 
Croatia in virtue of a marriage contract, while 

1 As early as the thirteenth century Slav families sat in the 
Council of Trau, e.g. the very ancient family of Slavid, which when 
Venetian rule was at its height assumed the name of Rossignoli. 
"Slavid" in Serbo-Croat means "nightingale" (rossignolo in 
Italian). 

52 









DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Venice was also to profit by it to assert her claims 
upon Dalmatia. This policy does not differ in any 
way from the methods adopted throughout the 
Middle Ages, and even in quite modern times, in 
selling nations and provinces as the dowry or appanage 
of some royal family. Even in our own day the 
last traces of this policy still obstruct the free 
development of the peoples. 

The Venetian marriage naturally did not prevent 
King Kresimir from seizing Dalmatia in 1018 on 
behalf of his son. Otho Orseolo in his turn recovered 
it on behalf of his sister. But the Venetians rose 
against their Doge, and the Croat kinsmen of the 
Orseolo supported the party which sought to put 
an end to the dynasty of Venice. They declared 
war upon the Orseolo, and King Kresimir acquired 
Dalmatia a second time, but was driven out by 
Byzantine intervention. The Orseolo were driven 
from power and the King of Croatia, Stephen I, 
(1030-1058), reoccupied the coast towns with the 
approval of the Emperor Romanus III. Zara 
alone remained under the protectorate of the Doge 
(1050). Stephen's successor, Peter Kresimir IV. 
(1058-1073), took possession of the whole Dalmatian 
littoral and the district up to the Narenta. 
Croatian power was at its height, and became more 
and more a menace to Venice. In the royal charters 
the Adriatic Sea is described as nostrum Dalmaticum 
mare. The expedition of the great Orseolo was 
forgotten. But Fate struck the young Slavonic 
Kingdom a fatal blow : Kresimir IV left no 
children. A Dalmatian magnate, Slavic, seized 
for a moment the vacant Dalmatian throne (1073- 
io 75)j but the Papacy, which in the person of Gregory 

53 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

VII showed its interest in new dynasties and was 
already inaugurating the policy of Innocent and 
Boniface, deposed Slavic and pronounced in favour 
of another noble, Dmitor Zvonimir. Venice profited 
by these dissensions to seize the towns of Dalmatia, 
but the new reign began in an imposing fashion. 
The people proceeded to the election of Zvonimir, 
who was solemnly crowned King of Croatia and 
Dalmatia in the Basilica of St. Peter at Salona. near 
Spalato, in the presence of the Papal Legate. 1 

Zvonimir took an oath of fidelity to Gregory 
VII, who sent him the Royal Standard. Thus 
Croatia, as later on Sicily, Scotland and Denmark, 
entered the sphere of Latin rule and obedience 
of the Holy See. The Dalmatian towns did him 
homage, and the last echo of the struggle between 
the Slav and Latin liturgies, between the national 
Slavo-Byzantine spirit and the influence of the Latin 
and Germanic worlds, died away. Zvonimir's wife, 
Helena, was sister to King Ladislas I of Hungary. 
Everything conspired to separate the Croats from 
their Slav brothers further east. It was a divorce 
destined in the future to give rise to political dissen- 
sion between two branches of a single race, and Dal- 
matia was to suffer from it more acutely than any 
other Jugoslav province. 

The new King's first act was to ally himself with 
the Normans of Robert Guiscard against the com- 
bined forces of Venice and Byzantium. Already in 
1076 Venice threatened the Dalmatian towns with 

1 In the town of Spalato alone there are three foundations of 
the Croat kings — the Convent of St. Stephen de Pinis (to-day 
Sustjepan) in 1020, the Convent of St. Mary in Paludo in 1030, 
and the Church of St. Felix in Riva. All three still survive. 

54 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

reprisals, in the event of their permitting the Normans 
to establish themselves in the country. But the 
Doge Domenico Selvo, brother-in-law of the Emperor 
Michael VII, did not act in his own name, but fought 
to safeguard the rights of Byzantium. All the 
struggles of this period were, in their legal aspect, 
struggles for or against Byzantine sovereignty. 
In the waters of Corfu the Croato-Norman fleet 
inflicted in 1084 a bloody defeat upon the Venetians 
and Byzantines. But it was a victory which led 
to nothing, for Alexis Comnenus, to compensate 
his ally the Doge for the losses which he had sustained 
in this war, ceded to him in the following year all 
the rights of the Byzantine crown over Croatia and 
the Dalmatian towns. The Doge Vitale Falier 
assumed the title of Dux Chroatice et Dalmatics. 
Confronted with so serious a reverse, Zvonimir 
had only one thought : to assume the Cross and 
furnish the Holy See with a direct proof of his devo- 
tion. It was not until 1095 that the First Crusade 
was proclaimed at Clermont : and yet as early as 
1089 it was being discussed at the court of the King 
of Croatia, who convoked a great popular assembly 
at Knin in order to propose an expedition to the 
Holy Land. The magnates refused their support ; 
Zvonimir was assassinated, and buried in the vaults 
of the Cathedral Church of Knin. 

By the death of this forerunner of the Age of 
Chivalry, Croatia found herself without a national 
dynasty, and at the mercy of events. One party 
offered the throne to Ladislas of Hungary, as the 
brother of Zvonimir's widow, Helena, little thinking 
that it was about to involve Croatia and the Slav 
world in the most unequal and fatal of alliances. 

55 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Ladislas at once occupied part of Croatia. But 
the Croat nationalists opposed to him a Croat 
prince from Dalmatia, named Peter, possibly a 
relation of King Slavic ; while the coast towns 
returned to the allegiance of Constantinople. 

When Ladislas died in 1095, his son and successor 
Koloman declared war upon Peter II, whose capital 
was still at Knin. In his alarm lest the King of 
Hungary should seize the Dalmatian towns, the 
Doge Vitale Michiel sent to them as envoys Badoer 
da Spinale and Falier Stornato, who concluded agree- 
ments recognizing the protection of the Doge in his 
quality of imperial prototsebast. 

Thus the sole right of Venice to Dalmatia was 
that conferred upon her by the Emperor of the East ; 
legally Dalmatia belonged to the Basileus, just as 
Tuscany and the Duchy of Milan belonged to the 
Emperor of the Romans. The Croat kingship, 
of which Dalmatia is the cradle and the temple of 
its greatest memories, also drew its authority from 
the consent of the Byzantine Emperor, but its in- 
vestiture was justified by the Slavonic character of the 
country. The failure of the first serious political effort 
of the Jugoslav race was an immense misfortune for 
the consolidation and peaceful development of Central 
and Eastern Europe. A strong Croatian Kingdom, 
allied and even blended with the contemporary 
Serbian principalities, would have formed an impass- 
able barrier against Hungarian and Venetian conquests, 
which deflected the Slav countries from their true 
destinies and prepared the way for the monstrous 
rule of Turkey and Austria. 

Thus Hungary succeeded to Croatia. Her king 
invaded Dalmatia and took Belgrade (near Zara). 

56 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

In order to avoid a war with the newcomer, the 
Doge signed a treaty with Koloman in 1098 by which 
the two States mutually guaranteed their Dalmatian 
possessions. This guarantee could not be cited by 
Venice as consecrating her legal title, for it was the 
King of Hungary alone who had a title to Dalmatia 
as heir to the Croatian crown. He challenged 
the Doge's title of Dux Chroatice et Dalmatics and 
invited him to produce his parchments and to consent 
to an inquiry into the origin of Venetian claims in 
Dalmatia, " because," he wrote, " to me and to my 
lords and elder statesmen it seems doubtful whether 
I ought to call you Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia." l 
In 1097 Koloman seized Croatia by force of arms, 
but two years later he was defeated outside the walls 
of Przemysl by the Russians and Kumans. The 
Croats rose in revolt, and the king was obliged in 
1 102 to sign a friendly agreement with the magnates 
of his new kingdom. All opposition in Croatia was 
thus at an end. Koloman entered Belgrade-on- 
Sea, where he was solemnly crowned King of Croatia 
and Dalmatia. This event ushers in a new period 
in the history of Dalmatia and of the Jugoslavs 
in general. 

IV. From the Coronation of Koloman to the 
Sale of Dalmatia to Venice. 

The nature of the agreement between the King 
of Hungary and the Croats has been the subject 
of interminable discussions. Hungary, which in 
its origin was a Federal State, but after suffer- 

1 Quia mihi principibusque meis et senibiis dubium videtur, utrum 
le ducem Chroatice atque DalmaticB nominal* eritn. 

57 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ing a long eclipse under the Habsburgs and the 
Turks, was welded in the nineteenth century into 
a national Magyar State, claims that Dalmatia and 
Croatia belong to her by right as appanages or 
subject lands {partes subjectce), which lost their 
independence in the eleventh century. This con- 
tention cannot bear serious discussion. If in 1102 
Pannonian and Croatian Dalmatia did actually 
cease to be ruled independently under a national 
dynasty of its own, it was none the less never absorbed 
by Hungary. The agreement with the Hungarian 
Crown was a federal pact, and the king was the only 
common link. The Croats safeguarded their historical 
individuality, but unhappily were subjected to all 
the political fluctuations of another State, which, 
though governed by laws more or less common to 
Latin feudalism, was none the less a political organism 
utterly alien in its customs and military organiza- 
tion to the agrarian and patriarchal constitution of 
a Slavonic State. The Hungarian magnates of the 
Middle Ages differ from the Croat magnates, just 
as do Russian nobles from German nobles. If 
Croatia, as the result of so long and intimate a 
relation with a neighbouring country, gradually 
lost its Slav elasticity and its political raison d'etre, 
it by no means follows that it ceased to be a semi- 
sovereign country, always eager to acquire a full 
political and national personality of its own. In 
fact it has always seized every historical occasion 
that presented itself, to affirm the federal nature of 
the tie which bound it to the Hungarian Crown. 

Of the countless declarations of the Croatian 
National Assembly in this sense we will only quote 
here a single one, which for clarity of expression 

58 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and energy of form leaves nothing to be desired. 
It was in 1712, under the Emperor Charles VI (III of 
Hungary and Croatia) that the Croatian Estates, being 
invited to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction, insisted 
on defining the nature of the tie which united them 
to the Crown. " We are free," they wrote to their 
sovereign, " and not slaves. While forming part 
of Hungary, we are not its subjects. We have had 
our national kings, who were not Hungarians. No 
force and no servitude has subjected us to the 
Hungarians, but it was by our own free will that we 
submitted, not to the kingdom but to the King." l 
It was Croatia, too, who, disguised under the mantle 
of the Hungarian kings, was to engage in a struggle 
with Venice for the possession of Dalmatia. She 
adhered to this programme until our own times, 
with Hungary when possible, without Hungary 
when necessary. Mediaeval Hungary was an 
anational State, alike in its foreign policy and in 
its constitution. And it was because (thanks to the 
superior political sense with which the Turanian 

1 The latin text of this memorable declaration runs as follows : 
" Liberi sumus, non mancipia. . . . Partes quidem sumus, uti 
leges loquuntur, annexac Hungariae, non autem subdite : et nativos 
olim habebamus, non Hungaros reges ; nullaque vis, nulla capti- 
vitas nos Hungaris addixit, sed spontanea nostra ultroneaque 
voluntate non quidem regno, verum eorundem regi nosmet 
subiecimus. . . ." 

We may add here that the Croats were the last nation in Europe 
to abandon the use of Latin, not only in official documents, but 
also in private life. It was on the day that the Magyars denounced 
this tacit agreement to employ a classic international language 
■ — an agreement which toned down all conflicts and was the living 
symbol of legal parity — that the struggle between the Magyars 
and the Croats began. We remember having heard in our childhood 
at Zagreb a Croatian advocate pleading in Latin. As for the Latin 
eloquence of Bishop Strossmayer, the whole world has recognized it. 

59 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

races seem to be endowed) she represented the 
principles of Christianity, Latinism and decentrali- 
zation, that she was eventually able to extend her 
influence and territorial possessions under the House 
of Anjou. From the moment that the feudal and 
anational spirit was relaxed, and Hungary, carried 
away by a Magyar revival, threw her whole history 
to the winds and set up the Magyar racial claim in 
opposition to that of the Slavs — of whom Croatia 
was the chief — from that day the divorce was an 
accomplished fact, though the actual date of the 
forcible separation was still adjourned to a 
propitious occasion. 

Hence it was not as King of Hungary but as King 
of Croatia and Dalmatia, as the successor of the Croat 
royal family, as the nephew of the last king's wife, 
that Koloman (1102-1116) made his entry into 
Dalmatia. This king had everything in his favour. 
The Emperor Alexis Comnenus, whose son and heir 
John was married to Koloman's sister, ceded to the 
latter all rights over the Dalmatian towns and 
islands. In 1107 the Doge himself, Ordelafo Falier, 
renounced his title of Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia, 
and the Venetian fleet received orders not to oppose 
the King of Hungary's occupation of Dalmatia. 
Falier was the ally of Alexis, and effaced himself 
because he needed the latter's help against the Norman 
danger. The Dalmatian episcopate, as in 1797, 
persuaded the Communes to accept Hungaro-Croatian 
sovereignty. But occupation is not conquest. The 
towns, headed by Zara, recognized this sovereignty 
on certain definite conditions, such as run counter 
to all traditional ideas regarding the kingly power 
and the rights of a suzerain. There are regular 

60 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

treaties of protection between the independent 
Communes and the sovereign whom they chose 
freely as the guardian of their liberties. There are 
charters such as are more in keeping with the ideas of 
our own time than those extreme projects of centrali- 
zation which strike at the root of all real liberty. 

At Zara King Koloman took a solemn oath to 
respect and pay strict regard to the autonomy of 
the Dalmatian towns, which ever since the province 
had existed, had been respected by the Emperors 
of the East. By a happy chance a single charter 
has survived the policy of systematic destruction 
applied to all such documents by the Venetians in 
the eighteenth century. The historian of Trau, 
John Lucie (Lucio) avenged his country by publish- 
ing in his book De Regno Chroatice et Dalmatice 
(Amsterdam, 1666) the charter granted to his native 
city by Koloman. This Charter of Trau, dating from 
1 107, is the model of others granted to the towns of 
Zara, Sebenico and Spalato, and the islands of 
Dalmatia and the Quarnero. Its principal clauses 
are as follows : — 

1. The town of Trau is exempted from every kind of 

tribute including the tributum pads, which it used 
to pay to Byzantium, and afterwards to the King 
of Croatia. 

2. It is granted complete liberty to elect its bishop and 

its count, and the King is obliged to conform to the 
choice made by the Communes, a right which, the 
Charter declares, the Dalmatians enjoyed " sub- 
inperatore Constantinopolitano," 

3. Complete legislative and judicial autonomy. The town 

is to be governed by the laws voted by its own Com- 
mune, and is to have no other judge save one elected 
by itself. 

61 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

4. The customs and revenues of the port are to be divided 

between the King, the Count, and the Bishop. 

5. No stranger of whatever country, whether Hungarian 

or other, can be admitted to the town without an 
authority from the Commune. 

6. If the King in person expresses the desire to be crowned 

at Trau or to convoke the Diet of the kingdom there, 
the Commune is not obliged to receive the sovereign's 
suite within the walls of the town. 

7. The citizens of Trau can emigrate at will and travel 

freely. 

In short it is the widest communal authority known 
in Europe. The Italian Communes only wrested 
a part of such privileges from the German Caesars 
after sanguinary struggles. The French Communes 
never knew such liberties at all. To find any analogy 
we must revert to the semi-independence enjoyed 
by the City of London under Henry I. 

This picture, slight as it is, would be incomplete 
if we did not add two details which throw a char- 
acteristic light upon the liberties of the Dalmatian 
Communes. These are the exemption from all 
military service under the king, and the exemption 
from the obligation of supplying hostages to the king. 
Later on Venice put forward both demands, and 
indeed that was all she claimed from Dalmatia, which 
was above all to furnish her with men, for her land 
and sea forces. Thus the privileges of the Dalmatian 
Communes are inseparable from the nominal rule 
of Byzantium, and the more effective rule of Croatia, 
Venice merely confirmed them while restricting 
their scope. The Doges in their grants of new charters 
to the Dalmatian Communes referred to the latter's 
ancient liberties. " Juramus vobis" thus wrote the 
Doge Ordelafo Falier in 11 17 to the towns of 

62 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Zara, Arbe and Trail, " juramus vobis vestram 
consuetudinem et siatum vestrum et libertatem terrce 
vestrcz ftotestatem, que, quam antiquitus dicitis habuisse 
sub Imperatore Constantinopolita.no et sub rege 
Ungarorum. . . . Insuper taliter vos regere et 
manutenere sicut vobis Dalmatinis, Colomanus rex 
HungaricB iuravit suis cum archiepiscopis, episcopis 
et comitibus. , 

But Venice only kept the oath so long as she 
herself was threatened by Hungary's competition. 
From the fifteenth century onwards, while leaving 
in operation the municipal constitution, with a strong 
dose of favouritism towards the oligarchic element, 
she resorted to numerous levies and organized a 
crushing monopoly, involving countless restrictions 
upon Dalmatian trade. At the same time she ex- 
cluded everything that could raise the intellectual 
level of the people. She destroyed all traces of their 
past greatness. She falsified the whole history of 
the Dalmatian conquest. She destroyed every 
document which could have thrown doubt upon her 
rights over Dalmatia, as against the Hungaro- 
Croatian Crown. Above all she set herself to discover 
and destroy at Zara all charters of the twelfth 
century, down to the most insignificant copies. 
She forgot, however, to destroy the Convent of St. 
Mary the Less at Zara, founded in 1066 by Cicca, 
the sister of King Kresimir, and the tomb of Cicca's 
daughter Vekenega (11 11), which is the most historic 
monument in the Dalmatian capital. She also 
neglected to burn the book of Lucio, which saves 
from oblivion all the Croat documents referring 
to the foundation of the monastery and to the 
famous Campanile of St. Mary erected by the 

63 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

people of Zara in memory of Koloman's solemn 
entry. 

The Ragusan historian Resti (Cronache di Ragusa) 
in the eighteenth century drew up a violent indict- 
ment of the policy of the Serenissima. Annoyed by 
the disastrous impression created by Lucio's book 
in Dalmatia and at the trenchant proofs advanced 
by the great patrician in favour of the inalienable 
rights of the Hungaro-Croatian Crown to Dalmatia, 
Venice — Resti tells us — on the pretext of destroying 
certain monuments erected contrary to Venetian 
law to the memory of certain patricians of Venice, 
sent to Dalmatia three Syndics, who plundered all 
the various town archives and destroyed all the 
charters. But for the work of Lucio, who wrote 
in secret, and but for his discovery of the charter 
granted by Koloman to Trau, the world would have 
believed the deliberate lies of Venice, renewed in 
our own day by the unscrupulous representatives 
of a predatory policy, and would have accepted the 
view that Rome and Venice were the uncontested 
rulers of Dalmatia for 2000 years. We shall have 
a great deal more to say with regard to this 
legend. 

The Venetians were in uncontested possession of 
part of Dalmatia — the 120 miles representing the 
territories of Ragusa and of Poljica never fell under 
their sway — for 376 years, from 1420 to 1796 ; 
whereas during the three centuries following upon 
the fall of Croatian independence (11 15-1420) Croatia, 
in Hungarian disguise, fiercely disputed Dalmatia 
with Venice. During this period of three hundred 
and five years she waged twenty-one wars with 
Venice to recover her heritage, the cradle of the 

64 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Croat Monarchy. To affirm that the Kings of Hungary- 
Croatia were fully conscious of the stake, would be 
to read modern ideas into the mentality of the Middle 
Ages. But one fact is beyond all dispute, namely, 
that the Hungarian monarchy, relying upon the 
Croatian right of succession, aimed at completing 
its territory and rounding off a maritime State, 
enjoying all the conditions of a political life of its 
own ; while Venice's one thought in the struggle 
was to assure herself by sea and land against the 
risks of a foreign commercial policy. It is in this 
sense that a resemblance may be traced between 
the mediaeval duel and the problem which concerns 
us to-day — between unification, political and national, 
and conquest, commercial and strategic. 

In the eyes of Venice, Dalmatia was an insigni- 
ficant strip of territory, a foreign people for whom 
she cared nothing. What in her eyes justified so 
stern a struggle, was the possession of certain out- 
posts whence she could dominate the sea routes and 
drive out her rivals and competitors. Consequently 
one of her foremost political aims was the enfeeble- 
ment, or even the destruction, of the federal kingdom 
which had resulted from the Hungaro-Croatian 
agreement. For Hungary, on the contrary, the 
conquest of Dalmatia was an end in itself ; the 
resumption of a process of state-formation in which 
the actors had changed, but which still preserved 
the old historical and national background. The 
salient points of this dramatic struggle may be 
summarized in their chronological order. 

First War, 1115. — The Doge Ordelafo Falier 
seized Zara, Spalato and Trau. 

65 e 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Second War, 1116. — The Venetians captured the 
Castle of Zara, and the army of the Ban of Croatia 
was defeated outside the walls. The Venetians 
demolished the fortifications of Sebenico. 

Third War, 1117. — The Doge Falier was defeated 
in his turn, and his successor Domenico Michiel 
concluded an armistice for five years. 

Fourth War, 1124. — King Stephen of Hungary 
and Croatia drove out the Venetians and conquered 
Belgrade, Sebenico, Trau and Spalato, but failed 
before Zara. 

Fifth War, 1125. — Doge Domenico Michiel re- 
covered from Hungary Spalato, Sebenico and Trau, 
and razed to the ground the strong place of 
Belgrade, near Zara, the famous town where King 
Koloman had been crowned. 

Sixth War, 1133. — King Bela I conquered all 
Dalmatia except Zara and a few islands. He also 
occupied Bosnia and assumed the title of Rex Ramce 
(the ancient name of Bosnia). 

Seventh War, 1163. — This time it was no longer 
Venice, but the Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus, 
who seized Dalmatia, really on behalf of Venice, 
and drove out King Stephen IV. 

Eighth War, 1165. — Hungary and Byzantium con- 
tended for Dalmatia. 

Ninth War, 1166. — King Stephen III, who had 
recovered the throne, seized all Dalmatia, and 
granted to the town of Sebenico the same privileges 
which the other towns had secured from his pre- 
decessors. 

Tenth War, 1167. — Byzantium for the last time 
challenged Venice's possession of Dalmatia, and 
secured the whole province save Zara and the islands. 

66 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

After the death of Manuel in 1180 they once more 
lost these gains. 

Eleventh War, 1180. — King Bela II conquered 
all Dalmatia, including Zara. This king of the 
House of Arpad was a remarkable man, in whom 
there was no trace of his predecessors, St. Stephen 
Ladislas and Koloman. The Magyar idea suddenly 
revealed itself in him like a hidden malady. He is 
the destined forerunner of the Tiszas and the Apponyis 
of to-day. He made war upon the Serbs and Bulgars 
and exploited the religious struggles, in order to 
win for himself a great position in the Balkans. 
He was crafty and evil in character. 

Twelfth War. — For ten years (1181-1191), the Vene- 
tians laid siege to Zara in vain. This town, which 
was greatly coveted as a military and political 
outpost in the upper Adriatic, was more Croatian 
than any other town in Dalmatia, and was to preserve 
that character even at a far later date, during the 
period of national struggle in Dalmatia. It was 
only in quite modern times that the Italian bureau- 
cratic idea took root there, and it could never entirely 
efface the old traditions. Failing to recover the town, 
the Doge Dandolo concluded an armistice with King 
Bela, which was not infringed for eleven years. 

Thirteenth War, 1202. — Venice, inconsolable at 
the loss of Zara, profited by the Fourth Crusade 
and the embarrassment of the French Crusaders, 
who lacked sufficient means to reimburse the 
Republic of St. Mark for the expenses of transport 
to the Holy Land. Enrico Dandolo set sail for 
Palestine, but in reality for the conquest of Dalmatia. 
The Crusaders, after a long siege, took the city by 
assault ; most of its inhabitants were massacred, 

67 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and its ramparts dismantled. The capture of Zara 
immensely scandalized the Christian world, and for 
the crime of diverting the Crusade from its true 
object and launching the Crusaders not against 
the infidel but against a Christian and Apostolic 
King instead, Pope Innocent III placed Venice under 
the interdict. The feudal Croat lords, whose land 
reached the gates of the town, rebuilt the ruined 
walls and the quarters which had been set on fire. 
Domaldo Svacic, the head of a great Croat family, 
entered Zara, but found himself obliged to capitulate 
and recognize the sovereignty of Venice. 

In 1 216 Andrew I, finding himself short of money, 
renounced his rights to Zara in favour of Venice, 
who henceforth profited by her brilliant financial 
position to corrupt the sovereigns of Hungary. 
Meanwhile the great Croat feudal lords, and not the 
Venetians, were the real masters in Dalmatia. The 
Golden Bull which they wrung from Andrew I in 
1222 considerably augmented their power, and they 
proceeded to partition Dalmatian territory as though 
Venice did not exist. In fact she was merely the 
temporary mistress of the towns ; the territory 
outside their walls lay virtually outside her control. 
The Subic princes of Bribir and the Svacic princes 
reigned over the district of the Cetina, the Kacic over 
Almissa and the whole territory of Spalato as far 
as the Narenta ; while the Bans of Croatia continued 
to bear the title of " Banus de maritimis partibus," 
and to ignore the very existence of Venice. 

These efforts are yet another proof that Croat 
kingship, though crumbling into a group of feudal 
lordships, was not dead. But the House of Arpad 
always remained the stronger, and the Croats, 

68 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

separated from the Serbs, lacked alike the organiza- 
tion and the political personnel necessary for recon- 
structing the kingdom. King Bela III profited by 
this feudal dismemberment to deal a formidable 
blow at Croatian semi-independence. The corona- 
tion ceremony on Dalmatian soil was abolished, 
and henceforth a single ceremony was to suffice for 
the two countries. It was the first of the intermin- 
able violations of the Constitution, which marked 
the unequal alliance between Turanian Hungary 
and Slavonic Croatia. 

At this stage Europe was invaded by the Mongols 
and Tartars (1241-1242). Christian civilization was 
gravely menaced, Hungary and Croatia were invaded, 
and King Bela took refuge in Dalmatia. Three 
times did he change his residence, moving to Klis 
and subsequently to Spalato and Trau. The latter 
town was not defended by the Venetians, but by 
Count Stephen of Bribir, son of Prince Gregory and 
rival of Prince Domaldo, lord of Spalato. But 
this only shows how nominal was Venice's rule. 
The Dalmatian lands were in the hands of the Croat 
aristocracy, just as in the ninth century. 

Fourteenth War, 1243. — The Croats did not admit 
that the King of Hungary could renounce his rights 
to Zara, and the Croat commanders attacked the 
Venetians, but were repulsed. The citizens of 
Zara refused to obey Venice and took refuge in a 
body at Nona (Nin), one of the ancient cities of the 
Croat kings. But in 1244 Bela, finding himself 
in his turn short of money, abandoned the people 
of Zara, who eventually, in 1247, much against their 
will, returned home and accepted the sovereignty 
of Venice. The Republic imposed very severe 

69 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

conditions. There was to be a Venetian Count 
at Zara, and the citizens were to renounce marriages 
with Croatian wives, to surrender to Venice the 
revenues of their Commune and to hold their galleys 
and men at the disposal of the Republic. Trau 
and Spalato remained subject to the King of Hungary 
and Croatia, though virtually independent in all 
but name. Trau was ultra-loyalist, whereas Spalato 
was unruly and impatient. The latter town con- 
cluded a treaty of alliance with the Kacic princes, 
the independent Commune of Poljica, the Serbian 
Count Andrew of Zahumlje and the Ban of Bosnia, 
Matthew Ninoslav. The army, under the command 
of Dionisius, Ban of Croatia, crushed the Spalatans 
and their allies, and forced . the town to accept a 
homo regius as Count, to give hostages to the King 
and to take an oath of fidelity to him. Venice did 
not intervene, but remained content with the posses- 
sion of Zara. Thus Dalmatia continued in political 
dependence upon the federal Hungaro-Croatian 
Kingdom. A member of the royal house exercised 
the functions of a viceroy, with the title " Dux totius 
Sclavonic Chroatise et Dalmatian," while his 
substitute was known as " Banus Maritimus," in 
other words, Ban of Dalmatia. 

The fourteenth century opened with a great 
event. In 1301 the death of Andrew III brought 
the Hungarian House of Arpad to an end, and civil 
war broke out in Hungary and Croatia between the 
competitors to the throne. Queen Mary of Naples, 
sister of Ladislas IV, claimed the Hungarian throne 
for her son Charles Martel, and at his death for her 
grandson Charles Robert. It is round this Angevin 
prince, of French royal stock, the protege of Pope 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Boniface VIII, that the whole history of Hungary 
and Croatia turns during the opening years of the 
fourteenth century. But it was not until 1309 
that Charles Robert, having overcome his German 
and Czech rivals, was unanimously crowned as 
king. During the interregnum a great Croat family, 
the Subic, princes of Bribir — stuff of whom kings 
are made — seized possession of the whole of Dalmatia 
and became involved in war with Venice. 

Fifteenth War, 1280. — The Venetians laid siege 
to Almissa, the capital of the princes of Bribir, 
who resisted successfuly and in their turn declared 
war upon Venice. 

Sixteenth War, 131 1. — For three years the Ban 
Paul Subic of Bribir was at war with Venice, and 
died after having enjoyed the triumph of capturing 
Zara. His son, Mladen, attained very nearly to 
regal power, and held a great court in Dalmatia. 
Charles Robert regarded his great vassal as so danger- 
ous that he declared war upon him, defeated him 
in the Valley of the Cetina in 1332, deprived him of 
his hereditary office as Ban, and banished him to 
Hungary, where he received the fief of Zrin. He 
died in 1343. The Subic were the last and only 
great feudal house which could have asserted Croat 
independence. But Hungary, and even Serbia, 
was too strong for them, and Bosnia began to appear 
upon the horizon. Henceforth the Subic, lords of 
Zrin (Zrinjski), were to become merely great landed 
proprietors and famous generals and governors 
in the service of the Crown. Mladen had already 
lost Zara, which in 1313 signed a treaty with Venice 
on less harsh terms than those of 1247. Meanwhile 
Venice had profited by the civil war in Hungary 

71 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and the quarrels among the great feudal Croat lords, 
in order to seize Sebenico and Trau in 1322, and 
Spalato and Nona in 1327-1329. Thus Venice was 
once more established in Dalmatia, holding the 
whole coast between the rivers Zrmanja and Cetina, 
with the exception of Scardona and Almissa. Mean- 
while the Ban of Bosnia, Stephen Kotromanic, 
annexed the whole coast between the Cetina and 
the Narenta, with the towns of Imotski, Dumno, 
Livno and Glamoc. 

It was in the fourteenth century that the fortunes 
of Dalmatia were decided. She was, in fact, sur- 
rounded on every side by fresh attempts at political 
organization on the part of peoples of the same 
blood and language as herself. Right round the 
province, from the north-east to the south-east, 
there was formed a chain of Jugoslav States, marking 
out the path of her natural evolution. To the north 
was the Hungaro-Croatian Kingdom ; to the east the 
Banat, afterwards the Kingdom, of Bosnia ; to the 
south-east the Kingdom, afterwards the Empire, of 
Serbia, and quite to the south a free fragment of Dal- 
matia herself, the State of Ragusa. It was Dalmatia's 
second great opportunity of assuming the f nction 
to which her geographical position and the Slavonic 
character of her inhabitants seemed to invite her ; 
and by virtue of the political and geographical law 
which we have already laid down, and according 
to which an independent hinterland inevitably 
draws to itself the coast which forms its complement, 
we shall see independent Bosnia seeking almost at 
once an outlet to the sea and union with her brethren 
of the same race 

But Bosnia's political career as a real independent 

72 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Power only followed upon the decadence of Serbia. 
Meanwhile it was the latter Power which under the 
vigorous impulse of the royal house of Nemanja 
tended to supersede Croatia in her mission of unifica- 
tion. Thanks to the fact that Serbia occupied a 
more Balkan and more central position than that 
of the ancient Croat Kingdom ; thanks to an 
atmosphere more favourable for the formation of 
great States than that provided by the era of 
extreme feudalism in Europe ; thanks, also, to the 
creative genius of its sovereigns, the Serbian element 
concentrated in a State of greater power and vitality 
than its Croatian neighbour, which was languishing 
under the organized pressure of the Magyars. 

The identity of the Serbo-Croat nation, which 
stands out in every line of its history, is revealed 
also in the glorious name of Nemanja, the founder 
of the Imperial dynasty. So far from being purely 
Serbian, it is not a Serbian name at all : between the 
twelfth and fourteenth centuries it was very common 
on the Adriatic littoral, and was borne by noble 
Croat families in the mountain district of Velebit, 
which separates Dalmatia in the north from 
what is now Croatia in the narrow sense of 
the term. The Serbs produced a series of great 
sovereigns, and the Serbian State was from 1196 
to 1371 a great Balkan Power. The founder of 
the dynasty, the great Zupan Stephen Nemanja, who 
abdicated in 1196, occupied Cattaro and as early 
as 1171 threatened the authority of Byzantium 
in Dalmatia and Croatia. His successor, Stephen I 
( 1 196-1228), whose wife was a niece of Enrico 
Dandolo, was crowned king by Pope Honorius III 
in 12 17, and three years later assumed the title of 

73 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

" Totius Serviaa Diocliae Tribuniae Dalmatiae atque 
Chlumiae Rex coronatus." This provoked a pro- 
test from Andrew II of Hungary, who claimed the 
right of calling himself Rex Serbiae et Dalmatiae. 
Stephen Uros II (1282-1321;) came into conflict with 
the dynastic ambitions of Mladen Subic of Bribir, 
the great Croat lord, whose title ran, " Croatorum 
et totius Bosniae Banus." The struggle between 
this Croat prince and the King of Serbia was, in point 
of fact, mainly due to the desire of both to extend 
their territorial power over those of their own race. 
Mladen, too, sought to acquire Herzegovina, and 
added to his title that of " Dominus Chelmi," while 
the Serbian king called himself " Rex Croatian. " 
Charles Robert of Hungary in his turn entered the 
lists against Uros II, but was defeated : and the 
Serbian king, to commemorate his programme of 
political unification, presented to the famous Basilica 
of St. Nicholas at Bari a silver altar, bearing an 
inscription in which he is designated as " Lord of the 
lands stretching from the Adriatic Gulf to the great 
river Danube." 

The rising power of the Nemanja dynasty seemed 
for an instant on the point of solving the Balkan 
problem. In a supreme struggle with the Bulgars, 
the Serbian king inflicted upon them a bloody defeat 
at Velbuzd in Macedonia on 28th July, 1330. Never 
did a nation sustain so crushing a disaster. Bulgaria 
was virtually annihilated. This event throws light 
upon the strange mentality of the rulers of the Middle 
Ages, and above all of the Slav princes. The Serbo- 
Bulgarian problem could at that moment have been 
definitely solved. The Bulgarian magnates ap- 
pealed to Stephen Uros III, to proclaim the union 

74 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the two States under his crown. But the Serbian 
king, who did not even come up to the average of 
contemporary rulers, refused. Fear of the Turks and 
the fatal mirage of Constantinople subsequently 
prevented the Emperor Dusan from occupying him- 
self with the Balkan problem. Then the Turks 
appeared upon the scene and no further opportunity 
presented itself. 

Unhappily for the great designs of Serbia's rulers, 
Hungary became too strong. The French prince, 
Louis of Anjou, son of Charles Robert, launched 
the country upon the path of federal annexation, 
and became the most powerful sovereign of Eastern 
Europe, at the same moment when France, struck 
to the heart at Crecy, was falling under the alien rule 
of England. Beside the rising power of Hungary 
stood the Ban of Bosnia, an eastern edition of the 
Duke of Burgundy, adding to his territory at the 
expense of Serbia, and seeking to make his country 
a Great Power round which the whole race would 
focus, and from which the centralist idea would 
emanate. Thus Bosnia slowly made her way to- 
wards the Adriatic, but could not as yet achieve 
any serious result, hemmed in as she was between 
a strong Hungary and a strong Serbia. For in the 
meantime the Serbian Kingdom had been transformed 
into an Empire, definitely aiming at the succession 
to Byzantium. 

Stephen Uros IV, to whom the Serbian people 
gave the name of Dusan the Mighty, surrounded 
himself with an international court, where Serbs, 
Croats, Bulgars, Greeks, Albanians, Germans, Ragu- 
sans, Venetians and Florentines all met together. 
Under him Serbia became a powerful state organism. 

75 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

He ceded part of the Adriatic coast, the peninsula 
of Stagno, to the Republic of Ragusa in 1333. But 
he was preparing for war with Louis of Hungary, 
who refused to recognize his Imperial title. (On the 
16th April, 1346, Dusan was crowned Emperor 
of the Serbs and Greeks at Skoplje.) His rivalry 
with Hungary brought Dusan into close touch with 
Venice, who flattered the " serenissimus Imperator 
Sclavonic " and humbled herself before him, in 
order to hold her own against Louis of Anjou. 
In 1343 she allied herself for the first time with 
Bosnia, with the Croat princes Nelipic and Subic 
and with the Dalmatian towns against Hungary. 
But in 1345 the defection of Bosnia — which made 
an alliance with Louis and entering Dalmatia re- 
covered Knin, the residence of the Ban of the Dalma- 
tian littoral — brought to naught the efforts of the 
allies. Meanwhile the Serbian emperor coveted 
Dalmatia, and while offering Venice his alliance 
for the task of recovering Zara — which had revolted 
for the seventh time against the Republic — he 
concluded in 1347 a political marriage between his 
sister Helen and the Croat prince, Mladen Subic III, 
nephew of the great Ban Mladen and lord of the 
towns of Clissa, Scardona and Almissa. This Serbo- 
Croat marriage was a prelude to Dusan's active 
intervention in Adriatic affairs. 

Seventeenth Way. — In 1346 war broke out once 
more between Venice and Hungary ; and, not 
receiving active aid from the latter, the town of Zara 
at the end of two years of sanguinary struggle once 
more fell under Venetian rule. In 1348 Louis signed 
with Venice an armistice for eight years. This 
same year saw the end of the great Croat feudal 

76 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Houses, which had so long upheld the Slav 
banner in Dalmatia and Croatia. The Nelipic and 
the Subic of Bribir disappeared from the scene 
as political factors of the first order. In Croatia 
Louis ruled as master. Venice seized Scardona and 
aimed a blow against Clissa and Almissa ; but her 
ally of 1346 intervened, and ere long there arose a 
great struggle between Serbia and Venice, the issue 
of which can hardly be doubted. In 1350 the Serbian 
emperor invaded Dalmatia at the head of an army 
of 80,000 men. He occupied the territory of his 
sister, Mladen's widow and mother of Mladen IV. 
He received deputations from the towns of 
Sebenico and visited Ragusa in great pomp. But 
a sudden Byzantine diversion forced him to retrace 
his steps ; the Dalmatian campaign remained in- 
complete and Venice was saved for the moment. 
The Turkish menace began to be visible above the 
horizon, and rilled Dusan with disquietude. In 
1354 he made overtures to the Papacy in Avignon, 
and demanded the title of Captain-General of Chris- 
tendom. Innocent VI decided to send a mission 
to Serbia and his legates met the Emperor Charles 
IV at Pisa, on his way to be crowned in Rome. 
As -King of Bohemia Charles entrusted them with 
a letter to the Serbian emperor (19th February, 
1355), and in this document expressed his joy at 
seeing Dusan well disposed towards the cause of 
union between the churches. He addressed him 
as " his very dear brother," to whom he was bound 
not merely by the ties of a common monarchical 
mission, but also by the noble Slavonic idiom which 
is theirs in common. 1 

1 Eiusdem nobilis slavici idiomatis participatio, and later on 
Einsdem generoscs Ungues sublimiias. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

At this moment a new war broke out between 
Hungary and Serbia, and Dusan received the envoys 
of the Pope with great coldness. These overtures 
came to nothing. 

Dalmatian affairs once more became the order of 
the day. Venice wished to annex the territories 
of Dusan's sister, which were also coveted by the 
King of Hungary and by Dusan himself. The 
Emperor, so far from accepting the Venetian proposal, 
prepared for their military occupation. But the 
citizens of Scardona submitted to Venice rather 
than fall into the hands of Dusan, while Clissa was 
occupied by the Hungaro-Croatian troops. 

The great " Gatherer " of Serbian territory did 
not survive this event. The sovereign whose organiz- 
ing genius is revealed in his famous Code of Law, 
only lived a few months after Venice's new move in 
Dalmatia. On the 20th December, 1355, he died some- 
where in Macedonia — the actual place is not known — < 
at the age of forty-eight years. His death saved the 
Byzantine Empire J from destruction, and conse- 
quently hastened the fateful conquest of the Balkans 
by the Turks, who five years after his death occu- 
pied Adrianople. Finally it marked the end of the 
Imperial dream, and of the second attempt at political 
unity made by the Jugoslav race. The third attempt 
was to be made by Bosnia. 

Eighteenth War. — A year after Dusan's death war 
broke out once more in Dalmatia between Venice 
and Hungary (1356). This is known as the " Great 

1 In 1350 Venice addressed the Emperor, whom she had inscribed 
in the Golden Book, under the following title : " Serenissimo 
Domino Stephano Grecorum Imperatori semper Augusto et Raxiae 
(Serbia?) Rege illustri." 

78 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

War," the supreme and apparently final struggle 
between the great maritime Republic and the con- 
tinental Monarchy. The Venetians were already 
enfeebled by their prolonged war with Genoa for 
supremacy in the east. The Dalmatian towns, 
with Ragusa as their counsellor, had made common 
cause with Genoa against Venice. Thus Dalmatia 
was favourably disposed to receive the King of 
Hungary, whose wife Elizabeth — the daughter of 
Stephen II, Ban of Bosnia, and therefore a Serbian 
by race — claimed to represent the rights of Bosnia, 
already in an expanding mood of conquest, over 
the Serbo-Croat lands. 

The troops of Louis of Anjou forced their way by 
night into Zara, who opened her gates to the invaders 
(1357). In less than twelve months the Venetians 
were driven from all their positions in Dalmatia, and 
the Republic signed at Zara on the 18th February, 
1358, a treaty of peace, which completely excluded it 
from the province. By the terms of this treaty Venice 
renounced the whole coast " stretching from the line 
which divides the Ouarnero into two, as far as the 
territory of Durazzo." The extent of the disaster 
is shown by the fact that the Doge abandoned the 
title of Dux Dalmatian et Chroatiae. 

The wave of revolt extending from Ragusa to 
Trieste, against the fierce commercial egoism of 
Venice, made Louis' task of liberation easier. 
Seated on the throne of St. Stephen, the French 
prince established under the shadow of the 
patriarchal Hungarian Crown a great conception 
in the shape of Autonomy — the very thing which 
the Turanian aristocrats of modern "Magyaria" 
and their Jewish parasites have always refused to 

79 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the peoples which in earlier centuries had freely 
allied themselves to a suzerain Power, at once 
non-national and Christian. Whilst at the other 
end of the Adriatic, Trieste, the sworn enemy and 
victim of Venice, signed a treaty which earned it 
the protection of the House of Austria, Ragusa 
drove out the Venetians again and proclaimed her 
independence as a Republic, under the protectorate 
of the King of Hungary, in his capacity of King of 
Croatia and Dalmatia. The other towns of Dalmatia 
followed the example of their elder sister, and welcomed 
with transports of joy the new regime of liberty. 
For over half a century Venice found herself excluded 
from the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Her success- 
ful rival realized for a time that Danubian-Balkan 
confederation of which so many have dreamt 
right up to our own day, which Mazzini envisaged, 
and which has always found an impregnable barrier 
in Magyar centralism and its ally Prussian militarism. 
Hungary's ruler in the fourteenth century reverted 
to the broad policy of St. Stephen and became the 
arbiter of the Christian East. Upon the death of the 
Emperor Dusan he replaced him at the head of a 
more or less federal grouping in the Balkans. He 
delivered the Poles from the Lithuanians and Tartars, 
and Poland accepted him as her king. He reigned 
from the Vistula to Cattaro, over five Slavonic nations 
— the Croats, the Serbs, the Slovenes, the Poles and 
even part of the Russians. 

Meanwhile, however, the Turks seized Adrianople 
and became an imminent danger to the Jugoslav 
race. At the great Battle of the Marica (26th Septem- 
ber, 1371) the Serbian king, Vukasin, who had 
assumed royal power under the feeble successor 

80 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the Emperor DuSan, met his death, with the flower 
of the Serbian chivalry. This bloody battle, of which 
the more famous Battle of Kosovo (1389) was in 
reality merely the epilogue, inaugurated Turkish rule 
over the Jugoslavs. Thus the terms of the problem 
were changed. The intervention of the Turks into 
the affairs of Eastern Christendom turned the national 
history of the Slavs into other channels, placed them 
under foreign domination, and paved the way for 
the revenge of the Venetians and the aggrandisement 
of Austria. 

Between the Battles of the Marica and Kosovo, 
however, a third effort was made to group the 
Jugoslav lands into a single independent State. 
This attempt was made by Bosnia, a strange State 
on which the rival influences of east and west have 
told most deeply and which represents at once a 
link and a watertight division between the purely 
continental portion of the Serbo-Croat people and 
its maritime branch. Bosnia was the stake in all 
the many struggles between Serbia and the kings 
of Hungary and Croatia. It was also the great 
reservoir from which countless migratory movements 
of our race set out towards the Adriatic and towards 
the Save and Danube. Latin and Greek by turn, 
it had displayed a wellnigh Russian sensibility in 
matters of religion. It was the theatre of a vast 
mystical and social movement, which was connected 
with the Albigensian movement of the thirteenth 
century. It was this strange land, which for a little 
over a century assumed the part of executor of the 
Jugoslav political problem — thus rendering proof 
of the spontaneity of the movement for unity — and 
which sank beneath the torments of the Ottoman 

81 F 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

yoke, bequeathing to modern times yet another 
obstacle to the realization of the national dream, 
in the conversion of its aristocracy to Islam. 

Bosnia in the fourteenth century plays the same 
part in the east as the Duke of Burgundy in the 
west. She posed as the rival of Serbia and sought 
to supplant her, thanks to the memories which linked 
her to the Croat people in its evolution. 

After the death of the Emperor Uros IV, the Ban 
of Bosnia, Tvrtko, nephew of Ban Stephen Kotroman 
and of Princess Elizabeth of Serbia (daughter of 
King Stephen Dragutin), claimed to be the heir of 
the Nemanja dynasty and proclaimed himself 
" King of the Serbs, of Bosnia and of all the maritime 
countries." Venice and Ragusa, the two Powers 
most nearly interested in the affairs of the Western 
Balkans, recognized his title. 

Nineteenth War. — Twenty years after the Treaty 
of Zara, Venice, still unable to console herself for 
the loss of Dalmatia, once more declared war upon 
Hungary, then the ally of Genoa (1378). Once more 
the Venetians were defeated, and the Genoese 
made their way to the very lagoons round the city 
and occupied Chioggia and Malamocco. Venice 
saved herself by the truly Roman greatness of her 
sons, but she was bleeding from a hundred wounds. 
She accepted the mediation of the Count of Savoy, 
and in the Treaty of Turin (1381) she recognized 
the Treaty of Zara of 1358 and once more renounced 
Dalmatia. On the 30th September, 1382, Trieste 
signed a second treaty with Austria. 

Between the death of Louis the Great (nth 
September, 1382) and the Battle of Nicopolis (28th 
September, 1396) the first great defeat of Christian 

82 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Europe by the Turks, King Tvrtko of Bosnia pur- 
sued his plan of uniting all the Jugoslav countries. 
The Battle of Kosovo (15th June, o.s. 1389) left him 
quite indifferent. He took possession of almost 
all the coast towns, and Almissa, Spalato, Trau 
and Sebenico accepted him as their sovereign, in 
spite of the oath of loyalty which they had taken 
to King Louis. Finally in 1390 Tvrtko assumed 
the title of King of Croatia and Dalmatia. But 
in the following year this great prince died, and the 
third attempt at Serbo-Croat unification descended 
with him into the tomb. The next effort was not to 
be made till the nineteenth century, when Serbia 
awakened from the heavy slumbers of Ottoman 
oppression. 

At the death of Louis the Great, the reign of his 
daughter Mary and her consort Sigismund, the 
pretensions of Charles of Durazzo and his son Ladislas 
of Naples to the crown of Hungary, opened up 
new perspectives to Venice. She saw that the re- 
covery of Dalmatia would bring with it the mastery 
of the Adriatic. But she found a serious obstacle 
in the hostility of the Dalmatian towns, which 
had recognized Queen Mary and Sigismund, and 
came to enjoy over half a century of autono- 
mous life, such as they had not known since Croato- 
Byzantine days. 

Venice resorted to a stratagem. She allied her- 
self with the Croat aristocracy, which had taken 
the part of the French pretender against Sigismund 
She, therefore, gave her recognition to Ladislas, 
who landed at Zara on 15th August, 1403, and was 
crowned King of Hungary and Croatia, but returned 
to Naples after charging the Bosnian prince, Hrvoje 

83 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Vuk&c, to represent him in Dalmatia. Hrvoje 
struck his own coinage and, himself haunted by the 
Imperial dream, assumed the title of Grand Duke 
of Serbia and Bosnia, Duke of Spalato, Lord of 
Brazza and Lesina, Lieutenant-General of Croatia 
and Dalmatia. Meanwhile Sigismund three times in- 
vaded Bosnia, took prisoner King Stephen Tvrtko II, 
massacred the whole Bosnian nobility and stifled the 
Croat revolt in blood. It was in order to avenge 
himself for this military success of Sigismund, that 
Ladislas of Naples entered into secret negotiations 
with Venice, and in July, 1409, sold to the Republic 
for 100,000 ducats Zara, Novigrad, Vrana and the 
island of Pago, as well as all his rights over Dalmatia. 
This cession was absolutely illegal, since Ladislas 
had no right of succession to Dalmatia, and since 
the Dalmatian towns had recognized Mary as their 
legitimate sovereign and Sigismund as her successor. 
In point of fact Trau and Sebenico revolted, and 
the former sustained a long siege with indomitable 
courage. It was only on 22nd June, 1420, that 
the Bishop of the town, Simon Gospodnetic (de 
Dominis) capitulated to the Venetian general Loredan. 
Venice had to send her fleet in order to reduce 
Sebenico to submission. 

Twentieth War, 1411-1413. — Almost at the same 
time Sigismund, now elected Emperor of the Romans, 
declared war on Venice, but was defeated. The 
towns of Scardona and Sebenico surrendered to the 
Venetian Admiral, and an armistice was concluded 
for five years at Trieste. In 1416 Duke Hrvoje 
died, after having invited the Turks to Croatia to 
combat Sigismund ; and his inheritance on the 
mainland, the county of Almissa, fell to his brother- 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in-law, the Count Nelipic, while the islands of Brazza, 
Curzola and Lesina were ceded by Sigismund to the 
Republic of Ragusa. 

Twenty-first War, 1418-1420. — Once more Sigis- 
mund was defeated. In 1420 he ceded to Venice 
the whole Dalmatian coast, including Cattaro. The 
King of Hungary and Croatia, 62 years after the 
conquest of Dalmatia, had thus lost everything 
save the islands of Veglia and the counties of Almissa 
and Poljica (part of the territory of Spalato). The 
year 1420 marks the final conquest of Dalmatia by 
Venice. Under Sigismund's successor, Albert of 
Austria, serious struggles broke out in Croatia and 
Hungary ; but the Turks advanced towards the 
Danube and into Bosnia, and Venice no longer needed 
to fear for her rule in Dalmatia. The struggle of 
seven centuries ended in her triumph. She had 
won the game, by the elimination of one player after 
another. But the legal question remained open, 
and the Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia continued to 
administer parts of the Dalmatian mainland, as though 
Venice did not exist. 

5. Venetian Rule (1421-1797). 

Dalmatia, then, did not belong to Venice until 
the fifteenth century. From time to time the Republic 
of St. Mark seized this town or that, but was constantly 
held in check by Croatia and Hungary, and maritime 
Dalmatia preserved her municipal autonomy, pro- 
tected and even pampered by the King of Hungary 
and Croatia far more than by Venice. 

Finally the Republic gained a footing in Dalmatia 
by the process of gradually eliminating all her ad- 

85 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

versaries, and once completely installed, was hence- 
forth free to ruin the province at her leisure, to strip 
her of men in place of money, to make use of her 
ports, to import and export, and to exploit her as 
she pleased. As for the hinterland, it remained 
under the political control of Bosnia and Hungary- 
Croatia. 

Meanwhile it must be clearly understood that 
Venice never possessed the whole Dalmatian littoral. 
What is known as Venetian Dalmatia was Zara, 
Sebenico, Trau, Spalato and the islands, with the 
addition of Cattaro, actually reckoned as part of 
Venetian Albania, and the coast farther south towards 
Greece. This part of Dalmatia, with many restrictions 
so far as the Bocche di Cattaro were concerned, was 
to remain in her possession until 1797. But about 
160 miles of coast, in other words the little free 
State of Poljica, formed part of the county of Spalato, 
and also an important strip of territory reaching 
from the mouth of the Narenta as far as the Bocche di 
Cattaro and including the islands of Lagosta, Meleda, 
Giuppana, Mezzo and Calamotta — all belonging to 
the Republic of Ragusa — remained independent of 
Venice. This highly important fact completely 
disposes of the legend that Dalmatia was purely 
Venetian. 

The existence of an independent Ragusa on the 
Adriatic broke in upon Venice's claim to possession 
and introduced a permanent wedge into her territory. 
Ragusa may be regarded as a living summary of 
Jugoslav history on the Adriatic, as the material 
expression of the ties which, despite the adverse 
course of events, have always subsisted between 
the coast and its hinterland. If the country had not 

86 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

been Slavonic or Balkan, Ragusa could not have 
existed. She was not an artificial product, a political 
fantasy, but a genuine reality. She evaded Venetian 
rule just as the other towns might have done. In 
the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
she encouraged the other Dalmatian Communes to 
resist the onslaught of Venice and to resume their 
own place as part of an organic whole. But circum- 
stances were too strong, the other towns abandoned 
the struggle and Dalmatia was cut in two parts, 
Venetian and Ragusan. Ragusa shut herself within 
her walls and devoted her efforts to securing interna- 
tional recognition of her independence, while accept- 
ing the nominal protectorate of the Hungarian 
Crown. She thus became the great rival of Venice 
in the Balkans. Thanks to her intense Slavonic 
feeling, she extended her power together with her 
language, which was that of the countries subjected 
by the Turks. She paid an annual tribute to the 
Porte, she had her own diplomatic corps, and her 
own fleet, which took part in the battles which 
preceded the final Christian defeat at Varna in 1444. 
She obtained recognition of her neutrality from the 
Pope and from Spain, from the Emperor and from 
Venice on the eve of the Battle of Lepanto (1571), 
in which four Dalmatian galleys took part. But 
she never lost an opportunity of creating embarrass- 
ment to Venice and fanning the old flame of municipal 
liberty in Dalmatia. In the midst of the sixteenth 
century pamphlets circulated in the towns of Venice 
and Dalmatia, which spoke of independent Ragusa 
with admiration and expressed contempt for the 
blindness and weak spirit of resignation displayed 
by Zara and Spalato. Until the fall of the independent 

87 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Serb States, Ragusa formed part of the international 
Balkan and Adriatic system. After their fall she 
stood alone in the Balkans for the protection of 
our nationality. She imparted a touch of greatness 
to our language, not only by a flourishing literature, 
but also by a permanent contact with the Serbo- 
Croat people of the hinterland. By her methods 
of arbitration, her commerce, and her churches she 
upheld Slavonic Christianity from Sarajevo to Ruschuk 
and Varna. The diplomatic and national achieve- 
ments of Ragusa are certainly not the least factors 
which contributed to the revolutionary movements 
among the Jugoslavs in the nineteenth century. 

Venice found it necessary to assume the role 
of a Slavonic Power as soon as she came in contact 
with the world outside the gates of those towns 
whom her fleet held in subjection. Whenever 
she wished to compete with Ragusa, she laid herself 
out for the economic conquest of the Slav countries 
with the help of the Dalmatians, whose language 
made contact with Balkan Slavdom easy for her. 

Ragusa became, as it were, a focus for all the 
common traditions of our race, the true herald of 
Slavonic aspirations. Her great poets treated Turkey 
and Venice equally as the enemy, when their fancy 
envisaged the future. They dreamt of a Slav 
Empire and invoked the vanished splendours of 
the past. With an ear to every echo, they summoned 
in the seventeenth century Poland to deliver Christian 
Slavdom. At a later date they drew their inspiration 
from the poets of Poland and thus attested the spon- 
taneity of the movement which was to prepare the 
race for its enfranchisement from foreign masters. 

As for Venetian Dalmatia, she has no political 

88 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

history after 1420. In the fifteenth century the 
fall of Bosnia (1464) served to confirm the rule of 
the Republic of St. Mark, which fulfilled the negative 
function of a rampart against Ottoman conquest. 
Venice owed to this fact an increase of authority, 
and profited by it to extend her commercial influence 
and lay her hands upon the domains of the hinterland. 
While in 1480 the great Croat lord, Count Ivan 
Frankopan, ceded to her the island of Veglia in the 
north, she obtained in 1481 from the Bosnian Duke 
Stephen Kosaca the district of Makarska and the 
Narenta. This brought to a close the first cycle 
of Venetian acquisition in Dalmatia ; what was 
acquired up to then was known in Venice as the 
Vecchio Acquisto. 

Venetian rule in Dalmatia falls into two distinct 
periods, — the first from 1420 to 1635, during which 
the Dalmatian people maintained a fierce struggle 
against the Turks, while Venice only rarely inter- 
vened and took little or no interest in the defence 
of the Adriatic ; and from 1635 to 1797, when the 
life of the Republic came to an end. The year 
1635 may be regarded as the date when the Ottoman 
conquest began to ebb in the Western Balkans. 

Meanwhile Hungary was submerged by the 
Turks. On 29th August, 1526, at the Battle of 
Mohacs, Suleiman the Magnificent overwhelmed the 
Hungarian army, and King Louis II perished on 
the field. Ere long the Turks installed themselves 
at Buda and maintained themselves in Hungary 
and part of Croatia for more than a century. On 
the other hand Venice, seeing her eastern possessions 
gravely menaced and even those on the Adriatic 
in danger, concluded Leagues with the Pope, with 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Emperor or with Spain (1538-1570), which secured 
her position by sea, but could not avail to undo the 
land conquests of Suleiman and Selim. Besides, 
Venice was long involved in war with the Serbian 
populations, who had fled from Bosnia and Serbia 
to the north-east coast of the Adriatic and were 
famous under the name of " Uskoks " or " refugees." 
On the mainland Knin and Klissa were successfully 
defended in 1522, but in 1537 the latter fell into the 
hands of the Turks. Thus a considerable portion 
of Dalmatia was occupied by the masters of Bosnia ; 
a pasha installed himself at the very gates of Spalato, 
and mosques were erected, the ruins of which may 
still be seen at Klissa and Drnis. The Turks made 
inroads into the district of Zara and seized the whole 
Narenta district and eventually Castelnuovo in the 
Bocche di Cattaro. These Dalmatian territories 
were under the Beglerbeg of Bosnia (1580), Makarska 
being consigned to the Sandjak of Herzegovina, 
Klissa and Sinj to that of Livno in Bosnia, Knin 
and Scardona to that of the Lika. 

The Uskoks on the sea gave endless trouble to 
Venice, who, tired of war, allied herself with the 
Turkish Pasha of Klissa against them. Venice had 
to wage a three years' war against these descendants 
of the famous Corsairs of the Narenta and Almissa 
— in 1557, in 1596 and in 1615. The Uskoks made 
their way to within sight of Venice itself, and were 
eventually only reduced upon the intervention of 
France and Spain with the Archduke Ferdinand, 
who, as Viceroy of the hereditary Austrian lands, 
protected these Slav avengers on the strength of their 
being Croatian subjects of his. They were deported to 
Croatia, and their fleet was burnt. The Serbo-Croat 

90 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

people has in its national songs immortalized the 
Uskoks and their great leader Danicid, who routed 
the galleys of Venice, while singing the exploits of 
the Serbian heroes Marko Kraljevic and Tsar Dusan. 

The war of the Uskoks was a warning that the 
Serbo-Croat nation was still very much alive, and 
a symptom of the unrest from which it suffered, 
oppressed and scattered as it was, and deprived of 
all political form, so that it might serve as an object 
of bargaining for foreign Powers. 

During the sixteenth century two national factors 
bear witness in Dalmatia to the indestructible 
vitality of the Jugoslav race. A large number of 
fresh immigrants, flying before the pressure of the 
Turks, infused new blood from the neighbouring 
Slav provinces ; and thus the neighbourhood of 
Makarska was to a large extent repeopled from 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1 The county of Poljica, 
founded in the eleventh century by Bosnian nobles 
and reinforced in 1214 by certain noble Croat families 
flying from the Mongols, was also partly repeopled 
by Bosnian refugees in the sixteenth century. These 
migrations of the Serbo-Croat population followed 
a slow, peaceful and organic course, and were encour- 
aged by Venice, who took but little interest in the 
national character of Dalmatia. In them she saw 
new reservoirs from which she could recruit soldiers 
to defend her own greatness. The newcomers, 
akin to the populations they found, soon struck 
root in Dalmatian soil. 

The second notable factor was the sudden literary 

1 It was some of these Slavs who founded the little Serbo-Croat 
colony of Aquila in Southern Italy, which still preserves its Slav 
character. 

91 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

renaissance of the Slavs in Spalato, in the Dalmatian 
islands and Ragusa. Of this we shall have to 
speak later. For the moment we will confine our- 
selves to the general remark that there is no instance 
in European history of an aristocracy writing in 
prose and in verse, and creating a complete literature 
in the language of a conquered or intruding minority. 
There is irrefutable evidence that Serbo-Croat litera- 
ture in Dalmatia from the fifteenth to the eighteenth 
century was a spontaneous product of the Dalmatian 
soil. Its products have been published in seven 
volumes in the edition of Old Croat Writers, published 
by the Jugoslav Academy in Zagreb ; and though 
their contents are of unequal value, they cannot be 
dismissed as in any way accidental or artificial. 
They are the expression of a deep national sentiment, 
and indeed of a physical need. Poets like Marulic, 
Gundulic, Mencetic, Palmotic, Gjorgjic, Hektorovic, 
Naljeskovic, Drzic and others, all with several 
quarterings to show, whether under the Venetian 
Government or that of Ragusa, they all knew one 
another by the same token : community of language 
and their urgent desire to express their ideas and 
sentiments in Slav. It was the fall of Constantinople 
and the Humanist renaissance which followed, which 
presided over this Slav literary outburst in Dalmatia. 
Slavism was a native plant, and had never been stifled 
either by Latin or Venetian tradition. These men 
sometimes wrote in Latin, but never in Italian, save 
those who lived late in the eighteenth century : and 
the fact that they used Latin on occasions is but 
another proof that the culture which they had re- 
ceived from the Latin West had proved incapable 
of rooting out their Slav mentality. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

It was also in the fifteenth century that Dalmatian 
architecture reached its zenith. The Cathedrals 
of Sebenico (1450) and Trau (1420), the Palace of 
the Rectors at Ragusa (1390-1420-1464) bear witness 
to the originality of the Slav architects of Dalmatia — 
Master Radovan, George Matajevic and others. 
These architects drew their inspiration from the 
Roman monuments in Dalmatia. They are the heirs 
and the independent assimilators of Roman art, with 
a blend of Slavonic ideas. In the same way the 
Dalmatian painters and sculptors of the fifteenth 
century, while frequenting the Italian schools of 
painting and sculpture, never renounced the genius 
of their race, but transfused their art with certain 
natural Slav characteristics. 

We now come to the final period of Venetian 
rule in Dalmatia. It was only in the seventeenth 
century that it finally crystallized. This was the 
gloomiest period in the history of the province, 
save perhaps that which extends from the Congress 
of Vienna to the opening of the constitutional era 
in Austria (1815-1860). But the latter was the 
consequence of the former. The Ottoman Empire 
was beginning to decay, and Venice undertook a 
great campaign to drive the Turks out of Dalmatia. 
Their expulsion from the hinterland, which this 
involved, was the task assigned to that great leader 
Leonardo Foscolo, who was vigorously supported 
by the Dalmatian population and rid the country 
of the Turkish Begs and Pashas under whom it 
groaned. In 1635 Venice obtained from Turkey 
possession of the Dalmatian coastline and its hinter- 
land up to the water-shed of "he Dinaric Alps. 
This is known as the Linea Nani, after the name of 

93 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Venetian commissary charged with the delimita- 
tion of the frontier. The Linea Nani included the 
channel of the Morlacca, the Bay of Karin to the 
north-east of Zara, a portion of the county of 
Zara and the counties of Sebenico, Trau and 
Spalato. 

In 1647-1648 Foscolo set free the county of Poljica, 
Knin and Klissa, where the troops of Croatia and 
Bosnia covered themselves with glory. Finally 
in 1683 the men of Poljica contributed materially 
to the deliverance of Narona, Sinj, Popovo, Vrgorac 
and Castelnuovo. Vrana, near Zara, which was 
the seat of a powerful Turkish Beg, was recovered 
by the militia of the county of Zara, under the 
leadership of a priest l acting on Foscolo's orders. 

Finally, the great war of liberation, immortalized 
by the intervention of the King of Poland, John 
Sobieski, before the walls of Vienna (12th September, 
1683), led up to the Peace of Karlovitz (26th January, 
1699), which set a seal upon the victories of the League, 
and with it of the Dalmatian people, against the 
Turks. By this treaty Venice also profited. The 
new frontier between Venetian Dalmatia and Turkish 
Bosnia included the towns of Knin, Vrlika, Sinj, 
Duare, Vrgorac and Citluk. This was known as the 
Linea Mocenigo, and in diplomatic language II 
Nuovo Acquisto. The Peace of Pozarevac (21st 
July, 17 1 8) gave to Venice — in exchange for the 
Morea, which the Republic had lost with almost 
the entire archipelago — the district of Imotski, 
the left bank of the river Cetina and the upper 
reaches of the river Krka. This is known as the 
Linea Grimani or the Nuovissimo Acquisto. 

1 Son6. 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Since the eighteenth century Dalmatia, which 
furnished 60,000 picked troops to the Republic of 
St. Mark, had led a vegetable and anaemic existence, 
deprived of all spiritual contact with the Serbo- 
Croat nation — a mere point of departure for the 
caravans of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a military 
cordon, a colony without progress and without 
life. None the less a few great independent spirits 
still survived. The most authoritative Dalmatian 
writers, Garagnin {Riflessioni Economico-Politiche, 
Zara, 1806), Hreglianovich (Memorie per la Storia 
delta Dalmazia, Zara, 1809) and Vincenzo Dandolo, 
an adopted son of Dalmatia, in his memoirs, are 
not sparing in their invectives against the Govern- 
ment of Venice. These sentiments they had inherited 
from earlier generations, which, while understanding 
the relative merits of a Government that had held the 
Turk at bay and had at the same time favoured the 
development of a municipal aristocracy in the towns, 
could not console themselves for the decadence and 
eclipse into which Dalmatia had fallen and for the 
transformation of a flourishing League of cities 
into a recruiting ground of soldiers and sailors in 
the service of a foreign Power. " The truth," a 
French historian has said, " is that Venice had 
never felt any great tenderness for a colony which 
for her was only of relative importance. The 
Venetians jealously held to Dalmatia, but only to 
prevent others from installing themselves. If the 
Turks or Austrians had gained a foothold on 
the Adriatic through Zara or Spalato, there 
would have been an end to the commercial 
monopoly to which Venice still laid claim in 
a sea which was almost completely Venetian. 

95 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Once the maritime rule of powerful neighbours 
expanded, Venice saw her commercial interests 
seriously compromised." 

We must not allow ourselves to be taken in by 
the picturesque lions of St. Mark on the ramparts 
of the Dalmatian towns or by the benevolent, or 
rather somnolent, attitude of Venetian rule in Dal- 
matia. Nor must we allow ourselves to be deceived by 
post-mortem panegyrics or by the well-known incident 
of Venetian flags pathetically buried beneath the 
altars of Zara and Perasto. It is quite true that the 
Venetian Government did not inflict upon Dalmatia 
the scourge of feudalism. It is quite true that it 
did not allow the Turks to instal themselves on that 
Slavonic coast, lit up by the Latin smile. It is 
quite true that the memory of common struggles 
for the defence of civilization and of Te Deums 
at St. Mark's, kindled feelings of pride among the 
Dalmatian families. But this foreign Government 
did nothing for Dalmatia : it brought neither schools 
nor hospitals nor roads. But for private initiative on 
the part of the Dalmatians themselves, the unhappy 
province would have languished in darkness and 
penury. The fairy beauty of Venice, her military 
glory and the fame of her art, the mystery and 
intoxication which she evoked, could not console 
the Dalmatian people for their ruined life ; and 
hence they remained fiercely Slav, just as the people 
of the Ionian Islands and the Morea remained fiercely 
Greek. 

Thus after having defended " La Dominatrice " 
for the last time with unshakable and touching 
loyalty, their first step, as we shall see, was to demand 
in 1797 union with the kinsmen from whom they 

96 






DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

had so long been separated. They simply desired 
to take up once more the interrupted thread of their 
national history. Venice had left no trace in their 
hearts. After the gloomy period which followed 
the Congress of Vienna, the people demanded from 
the bottom of its heart the reopening of that national 
temple from which the Slav soul had never departed. 

In 1797, by the terms of the Treaty of Campo 
Formio, Dalmatia, with the exception of the territory 
of Ragusa, was handed over by the French Directory 
to the Habsburg Monarchy. After the Napoleonic 
occupation (1806-1814), Dalmatia, this time with 
the addition of Ragusa, was again made over to 
Austria by the Great Powers, under the terms of 
the Treaty of Vienna. Since that date Dalmatia 
has lived a double life — on the one hand the life of 
an Austrian province, miserable and neglected, and 
on the other an inward life devoted to the develop- 
ment of its national consciousness — a process power- 
fully accelerated by Serbia's movement for unity. 

It is to these national aspirations that the following 
pages are dedicated. 



97 g 



Dalmatia and the Jugoslav 
Movement 



CHAPTER I 

Slav character of Dalmatia — Venetian policy without national bias 
— Development of Slav literature in Dalmatia — The Dalmatian 
aristocracy — Ragusa — Jugoslav unity foreshadowed since the 
sixteenth century — Dalmatian artists — Slav character of their 
work — Resistance offered by Dalmatian Slavdom to Venetian 
influence — The eighteenth century — The Italian language in 
Dalmatia — Summary of the Venetian rule. 

From time to time, during the course of a thousand 
years of ever-changing alien domination, a national 
sentiment crept along the shores of the Adriatic, 
as the flicker of a lamp tended by unknown vestals 
glides along the walls of a vast necropolis. And 
always this sentiment assumed the Slav guise. It 
was the direct, spontaneous emanation of the tongue 
which had ousted even the speech of Mighty Rome. 
'Slav sentiment is as old as the mediaeval life 
of that ragged coast-line which there projects itself 
into the Adriatic. A coast-line of innumerable 
headlands and islands basking in the Southern sun, 
the bulwark and defence of the peninsula of the 
Thracians and Illyrians and at the same time a vital 

99 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

organ with many tentacles, which by its absorption 
of Latin civilization became a very system of spiritual 
channels, whereby the Slav lands are irrigated by 
the springs of Roman thought. 

But the subconscious, all-pervading feeling of 
an individuality separate from the Latin world was — 
so far as the miseries and the torpor of the times 
permitted— never anything but Slav in Dalmatia. 
The only Idea, assuming that an idea existed, was 
the Slav Idea. The only language that set the minds 
aflame, although influenced by the Latin psyche, 
was the Slav idiom. A vague Idea, an imperfect 
Idea, an Idea obscured by changing rules, by struggles, 
oblivions, troubles, by misery without end, but a 
live, spontaneous Idea. Whenever the Daimatian 
people had cause or desire to smile, it smiled in the 
idiom of its Slav forefathers. The spontaneous 
emotions of the heart reveal themselves in the mother- 
tongue. Man smiles and dies, loves and surfers 
in the familiar accents of maternal vigils by the 
fireside of home. This proof is worth millions of 
learned proofs drawn from ancient folios. 

Mazzini divined this, as that great man divined 
so many matters hidden from the eyes of the profane 
and the politician, but revealed to the pure in heart. 

" The Slav movement " — these are his immortal 
words — " springs like our own, spontaneously from 
the instincts and the just pride of peoples, from the 
germs of the future hidden in historical traditions 
and national ballads, from the example of other 
nations, from the awakening of ideas which seek 
and fail to find a free outlet, from a consciousness 
awakened to the sense of a mission to be accomplished, 
inscribed in the Divine design which informed 

100 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Europe with a common progressive fate/' * In 
these few words lies the whole history of Dalmatia. 

And who could, or would have robbed Dalmatia 
of her Slav soul ? 

Certainly not Venice. The great Republic never 
pursued a national policy in Dalmatia ; she was 
herself before all things anational — a purely Venetian 
State. She would not either impose her language 
upon the inhabitants of Dalmatia or propagate 
it among them, as some of our contemporaries 
imagine. She never considered Dalmatia as her 
own territory, as a continuation of her soul, but always 
as a military colony ; an object of exploitation, 
a military and customs rampart against her rivals 
in the West and the insolence of the Ottoman 
Empire. 

Venice did not hesitate to call things by their names. 
Upon Dalmatia, isolated from the world and linked 
with Venice only by her commerce and the powerful 
naval squadron stationed in her waters, the Republic 
never imposed anything that was not demanded 
by urgent military necessity. She always recognized 
the Slav character of Dalmatia by plain acts and 
not by rhetorical phrases, so alien to the tempera- 
ment of the Republic. 

But neither did she encourage it. She accepted 
it and ignored it, as she ignored everything that 
concerned the spiritual life of the former Kingdom 
of Dalmatia. 

This federation of municipalities ruled by statutes 

hallowed by immemorable age, this people of the 

interior ruled by equally ancient customs, was governed 

only apparently by Venice, with a minimum appara- 

1 Politica Internationale, 62, 1871, Ed. Nathan. 

101 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tus of officials, with many ducal decrees, with a 
great display of armed force, more naval than military, 
with many commercial restrictions, with a jealous 
international surveillance, kept ever on the alert 
by the hated little Republic of Ragusa, which in 
this iron-bound military system offered the Dalmatian 
spirit a window open to all the breezes of the moun- 
tains and the high seas. 

But Venice would neither attack the national 
speech of the Dalmatians, nor would she take an 
interest in their fate. She was superbly indifferent, 
and while at the court of the Medici our language 
at the end of the fifteenth century claimed the 
attention of scholars ; while Lorenzo the Magnificent 
went so far as to have the Slav (Serbo-Croat) tongue 
publicly taught in Florence, beside Greek and Latin, 
and Marino Gundulid, the brother of the celebrated 
author of the Osmanide, for three long years 
instructed the Grand Duke Ferdinand II in the 
Serbo-Croat language and literature, Venice — the 
mistress of a Slav people — would tolerate neither 
a printing-press nor a school in Dalmatia. She 
refused in spite of the constant suggestions of 
her Provveditori Generali, of men like Alvise 
Mocenigo, who reported that during his term 
of office (1777) there was not in Dalmatia " a 
single national college for the education of young 
people desirous of acquiring light and knowledge " 
— and Angelo Diedo (1791), who prayed that our 
parish priests should receive a suitable remunera- 
tion on condition that they instructed the rising 
generation in " reading, writing, reckoning and the 
elements of farming," thus furnishing wider oppor- 
tunities for education and study. 

102 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Venice did not reply. She commanded nothing 
and forbade nothing. She took all for granted, so 
long as the valiant Dalmatian people formed with 
their bodies a bastion for her greatness. 

She called the Dalmatians " Croats," without 
further ado. The Dalmatian cavalry was called 
the " Capelletti croati a cavallo," and their leader 
was styled " Capitanio de' Crovatti a cavallo." 
The Counts Fanfogna, di Possedaria and Begna were 
Dalmatian nobles, who received these titles in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from Venice, 
and not from the Imperial Austrian Government ! 

Up to the end of the seventeenth century not 
only the higher clergy of Dalmatia but even the 
Provveditori of St. Mark corresponded in Serbo- 
Croat and in Cyrillic characters with the subjects 
of the Most Serene Republic, on whose behalf the 
secretaries and clerks at Zara forwarded the orders 
of the Governors in the Slav tongue. General 
Foscolo, the last great Venetian soldier in Dalmatia, 
the defender of the hill-country against the Turks 
(1647-1648), wrote as follows to the Count di 
Possedaria : "I am writing the enclosed to Smiljanic 
(a renowned Dalmatian voivode, sworn enemy of the 
Turks) — if your lordship will be so kind as to read it 
to him, as I have not time to translate it into 
Croat." 

How different is the true history of Dalmatia from 
the official version given out for popular consump- 
tion in our day ! 

Venice — the absolute mistress of Dalmatia for 
fully five centuries, the Lion of St. Mark on the city 
walls symbolizing the complete surrender of the 
province. A rude and nameless population, incap- 

103 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

able of sentiment or progress, enslaved and Slav, 
subjected to the genius of the lagoons, overweighted 
by a powerful aristocracy, and a highly enlightened 
urban population, all the remote posterity of Rome, 
being either descended from the legionaries of the 
Mistress of the World, or formed from a nucleus 
of Slavs transformed by the higher civilization, 
weaned from the rude hovels and barbarous accents 
of their nomad forefathers. Dalmatia, designed by 
Providence to serve as the march of Venice, an 
Italian appanage of the Queen of the Seas, shaken in 
its blind devotion by the threats and persuasions 
of peoples from beyond the mountains, treacherously 
incited against their unhappy neighbours — peoples 
who have lain in wait for centuries and are now 
throwing themselves upon the corpse of San Marco 
to divide the spoils ! 

This is, approximately, the story disseminated 
in our day in order to rouse passions and justify 
conquests ; to tear asunder the age-long dream of 
the Dalmatian people. 

But the true story is very different. Venice was 
never sure of her prey, except perhaps, in her old 
age, towards the end of the seventeenth century. 

Up to that period it was not so much Dalmatia 
as the waterway of the Adriatic itself which was 
the more or less undisputed dominion of a Republic 
which breathed, as a fish by its gills, in virtue of 
this domain and could not have breathed otherwise, 
since the mainland of Italy, of which Venice occupied 
a small fragment, was really a forbidden garden 
of the Hesperides for her. 

The power of Venice extended as far as the power 
of her navies. But Dalmatia, and precisely the 

104 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

littoral — since the interior belonged to anybody 
rather than to Venice — did not submit until after 
endless assaults and conflicts. Nor did Venice enjoy 
her illusory power in peace, except when united 
Europe was engaged in abating the fury of the 
Ottoman tide, which flowed up to the very ramparts 
of the Dalmatian towns. 

The so-called V enezianismo did not become estab- 
lished in Dalmatia until the latter end of the sixteenth 
century, when by the Treaties of Karlovci (1699) 
and that of Pozarevac (1714) a territory peopled by 
Serbo-Croats of unmixed stock was entrusted to 
the protection of the Republic against the Ottoman 
barbarians. 

But this was not all. There was an agreement 
for mutual protection, an association in view of a 
common purpose, viz. the defence of Venice and of the 
mother country. Thus from one generation to another 
were handed down, instinctively, preserved as an 
inviolate heritage, the songs and hopes of the Slav 
people under the protection of and not in bondage 
to the great naval Power of the Adriatic. Venice 
remained indifferent to the day of her death, to the 
problems unconsciously maturing within the people 
entrusted to it by fate — problems which materialized 
with irresistible force in the century following upon 
its ruin. 

Only in the seventeenth century do we find the 
Pax Veneta consolidated as the supreme formula 
of physical self-preservation. In the seventeenth 
century — to the superficial observer — the Dalmatian 
coast became Italianized. Then, if ever, the Italian 
peninsula could have laid claim to Dalmatia, had 
Italy at that time been a strong, united, national 

105 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

State. These were the times described by Nievo 
in writing of his native Friuli. Hh pages might 
with but trifling modifications be applied to Dalmatia. 
But this was only for the moment. The Republic 
fell on the threshold of the new evolution, and her 
divorce f ] om Dalmatia was sealed for ever by the 
departure of the Slav soldiers from those military 
marches to whom the dying Republic would not 
entrust either their own defence or their own rejuvena- 
tion. " The Slavs " — said Altoviti to Vice-Captain 
di Portogruaro — " may go home when they like." 
They went home, and for ever. 

I Throughout all the phases of her story, the flame of 
Slav vitality shone brightly in Dalmatia. Whenever 
a Dalmatian had a poetic inspiration or desired to 
give expression to the faith of his fathers, he sang 
in Slav, and hastened to Venice, where the Slav 
writings of Dalmatian authors were printed freely 
without hindrance by the Signoria. Up to the dawn 
of the nineteenth century Dalmatia contributed 
more to the field of Serbo-Croat literature than all 
the other Serbo-Croat lands put together. 

During the nineteenth century Dalmatia has given 
to Serbo-Croat art, science and literature their most 
powerful and original interpreters. It is no longer 
possible to-day to discriminate between Dalmatia 
on the one hand and Croatia or Serbia on the other 
in intellectual life. Artists like Mestrovic, Rosandic, 
Bukovac, Medovic, Deskovic, Vidovic and Murat ; 
writers like Voinovitch (Ivo), Tresic, Begovic, Nazor, 
Car, Cippico (John), Katalinic, Korolija, Simunovic, 
Resetar, etc. — not to mention the dead, among them 
Botic, Budmani, Gradi, Kazali, Vodopic, Petranovic, 
Petrid, Buzolic, Ljubid — form a mighty array 

106 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

testifying to the Slav Idea in Dalmatia. What the 
province has contributed to Jugoslav civilization 
bears so definite and spontaneous a character, that 
this achievement alone would suffice to invest Dal- 
matia with a special life, a conscience and a mission. 
Moreover, the blossoms of to-day spring from very 
ancient stock. Their evolution is manifest, their 
intrinsic character undeniable. It defies all con- 
troversy over the Slav character of Dalmatia. 

But to return to our ancestors. 

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, 
Dalmatia, from Cherso and Pago to Ragusa and 
Cattaro, produced no less than one hundred and 
twenty-two Slav authors. Of this host of men of 
letters, the free city of Ragusa was responsible for 
seventy-six. Zara only contributed five, but by 
no means undistinguished names, Sebenico four, 
Spalato eighteen, Curzola and Lesina eight, Lissa 
two, Makarska only one, but it was that of the 
immortal friar Andrija Kacic — and Trau one, 
Ivan Lucie, the author of De Regno Croatia et 
Dalmatics. 

In these statistics of mine I am including only 
those writers whose words are read and studied in 
our schools, whose finest pages are included in our 
anthologies, the living and perennial flowers of our 
national soul. 

Though much of this literature may doubtless be 
described as " imitative," yet in the domain of 
lyrical poetry the Dalmatian poets are for the greater 
part exquisitely original. In their epic, dramatic 
and idyllic poetry, however, and in their sacred 
prose, imitation, at times betraying an unconscious 
literary plagiarism, is frankly evident. They are 

107 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

modelled on the Italian authors from Tasso to Marini. 
But let anybody point out a literature which was 
not imitative, and perhaps even more so than the 
Dalmatian, in the fourteenth and fifteenth century, 
except the Italian. And what are we to say of this 
same Italian literature during the early Renaissance ? 
Rather would I say that the very fact of this imitative- 
ness is a strong argument in favour of the Slav 
character of Dalmatia. 1 The transfusion of a 
foreign literature into the native idiom satisfied an 
imperative need of the national soul. Without 
such transfusion and metamorphosis, the soul of 
the poet would not have entered upon a sense of 
actual possession, the only true and profound charac- 
teristic of every national literature. And in this, the 
highest sense of the word, the Slav literature of 
Dalmatia is truly national. 

Almost all these writers were nobles. This sole 
fact disposes of another legend, so blindly accepted 
and repeated, of a cultivated Italian class and a 
nobility opposed to a semi-barbarous Slav rural 
population. This far-reaching error has been shared 
even by the champions of the Slav claim to Dalmatia. 
Yet the truth is that all, or almost all the passionate 
devotees to the national idiom, both during the 

1 " If we consider," said Tommaseo, " the restricted area, the 
poverty of the country, the lack of local schools no less than of 
printing-presses, the absence of Illyric books and the small number 
of readers in the country ; the division between the Latin and 
Greek rites, which still further diminished that small number by 
making the two alphabets and the two languages a very real differ- 
ence, we shall find that what the Dalmatians did for Slav letters 
is certainly very little, but it is more than the Italians, with so 
many millions of men, and such wealth of example and tradition, 
books and aids in general, have done for their own." — Secondo 
Esilio, ii. 131. 

10s 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Middle Ages and in modern times up to the Revolution, 
belonged to families of the highest aristocracy, 
to houses which already in the sixteenth century 
had been noble for centuries. Of this time at least 
it is not true, and of subsequent times it is only to 
a very small extent true to assert that the educated 
aristocracy of Dalmatia formed a class belonging 
to a different nationality from that of the uneducated 
rural element. 

The aristocracy was in overwhelming majority 
Slav. A Slav was Barakovid of Zara (1548-1628), 
who wrote the " Vila Slovinska," a charming poem 
in which the poet remodels the story of the foundation 
of Zara according to his own fancy, and attributes 
to a spouse of Neptune, a daughter of Ninus of 
Babylon, the motherhood of a hero named Slovan, 
through whom the town of Zara boasts of belonging 
to the Slav stock. And this patrician of Zara, 
who printed his poem under the very eyes of the 
Inquisitors of Venice in 1614, deplores in fine Slav 
verse, that since the glorious epoch of Marulic, 
foreigners have taken possession of his native land, 
and that his countrymen have betrayed the Slav 
Vila in being ashamed of speaking their own mother- 
tongue. 1 But he — sings the poet — has remained 
faithful to her and will continue to sing her praises 
and those of the Slav tongue. 

Another patrician of Zara was Bernard Karnarutic" 
( I 553~i6oo), the author of a poem entitled " Vazetje 
Sigeta Grada " (The taking of the town of Siget), 
the first heroic poem in Serbo-Croat literature — 

1 Barakovic died in Rome, and on his tomb in S. Girolamo degli 
Illirici are inscribed the words : " Musarum Illyricarum miro 
cultori." 

109 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

extolling the heroism of Zrinjski, Ban of Croatia 
— a highly refined writer, with great wealth and 
power of expression. Another scion of an ancient 
Slav noble house was the celebrated Marko ManiHc" 
of Spalato (1450-1527), a graduate of the University 
of Padua, who loved his mother-tongue most deeply, 
a highly distinguished poet and philosopher of his 
day. Nobles were also Lucie of Trau, Ivanisevic" 
of Brazza (d. 1665), theologian and poet, author of 
the Slav Parnassus; Kanavelic of Curzola (d. 17 19), 
one of the most notable Slav poets of the age, 
Mrnjavic of Sebenico (d. 1639), Hannibal Luclc of 
Lesina {d. 1535), and Peter Hektorovic (d. 1567), whose 
mother came of the noble Venetian house of Balbi, and 
Brother Andrija Kacic-Miosic (1696-1769), the scion of 
a feudal house possessing sovereign rights over a great 
stretch of the Makarska littoral — this priest rilled 
with prophetic genius, the prophet of the future 
Jugoslavia, who far back in the eighteenth century 
was the first to collect the Serbian ballads, for which 
achievement Tommaseo pronounced him " deserving 
of gratitude and respect." 

All these were of noble blood. And I am deliberately 
passing over in silence that marvellous city of Ragusa, 
her powerful and numerous aristocracy, affecting 
Latin ways, but more profoundly Slav than ever 
the Venetian nobility was Italian. The Ragusan 
Republic drew up its records in Latin and later on 
in Italian, but its senators debated in Serbian and 
corresponded in Serbian with the Serbian princes, 
signed their family names in Serbian and drew up 
their secret instructions to their ambassadors in 
Serbian, written in Serbian characters. Being in- 
tolerant in religious matters, Ragusa kept the Slavs 

110 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

from beyond the mountain away from her borders, 
but all her communications with them were conducted 
in Serbian. She formed alliances with the Dalmatians 
to combat Venice, and despised them for their sub- 
jection to St. Mark ; she accepted the Jesuits and 
their Latin speech — by no means the least cause 
of the spread of Italian along the Dalmatian coast — 
but not only attended the " Panslav " apotheoses 
composed in her " sweet mother-tongue " by her 
patrician poets, but officially professed herself attached 
to the Slav stock. After the Battle of Poltava the 
Republic of Ragusa wrote to Peter the Great : 
" Nihil huic Reipublicae antiquius nihil jucundius 
tuae Czareae Nationis Idiomatisve slavici spendidis- 
simae gloriae venerationis studia obsequenti cultu 
deferre " (ioth November, 1717), and on another 
occasion the Republic declared to the same Tsar 
that it was " Tarn arete idiomatis vinculo Imperio 
Tuo coniuncta " (30th October, 1709). 

Between Venetian Da'matia and Ragusa there 
was a mutual tie of national poetry, a kind of intellec- 
tual carbonarismo of few but eloquent symbols, which 
greatly helped to keep the spirit of nationalism 
awake from Zara to Cattaro, until the day of national 
resurrection. 

Of justly famous Ragusans I will only mention 
Cubranovic, who served under the walls of Milan as 
Commander of a Venetian cavalry regiment in 1520, 
but remembered his Slav mother-country and dedi- 
cated his praise to the " Lord of the speech of 
all of us dwellers on the Danube " (read : the King 
of Hungary and Croatia) ; Gundulic, filled with the 
sacred fire, proud that Ragusa alone had preserved 
her liberty among he neighbouring Slav lands 

111 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

when rent by the jaws of the horrible dragon (read : 
The Turk) and the teeth of the raging lion (read : 
Venice) l — the first among Slav statesmen to pro- 
claim the union of the brothers in race in despite 
of the diversity of faith ; 2 Giorgi, President of the 
Academy of Padua, but who nevertheless encouraged 
his countrymen to write their scientific works in 
Serbian. They were nobly seconded throughout 
Dalmatia by the nobles of the cities and the isles, 
such as the Curzolan patrician Vidali who, forgetting 
territorial boundaries, wrote (in the sixteenth cen- 
tury) to the Ragusan Naljeskovic that Ragusa 
herself filled all Illyria, " the crown and boast of 
all Croatian towns," the noble Luclc" of Lesina, 
who clings to the old Ragusan oak, as to a strong- 
hold where the " sweet Slav speech " reigns supreme, 
and the noble Friar Kaclc of Makarska, who by 
extending the somewhat parochial conception of 
a Slav Dalmatia, first divined the great ideal and, 
regarding all Jugoslavs as brothers, sang the praises 
of the heroes of Dalmatia and Croatia, of Serbia 
and Bosnia, and even of Bulgaria, embracing them 
all in one great impulse of love, and thus foreshadow- 
ing Balkan unity. Presently this movement assumed 
a more pronounced form in Spalato, and took the 
form of democratic propaganda. Towards the end 
of the sixteenth century, an Illyrian Academy was 
founded in the city of Diocletian (Spalato), with the 
object of instructing the people by disseminating 
books adapted to the popular intelligence and written 
in the national idiom. 

" A most noble task," writes G. Ferrari-Cupilli, 

1 Canto viii. of the poem " Osman," 143-146. 
x Ibid, canto v. stanza 118. 
112 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

" showing, how in our past, which was not so obscure 
and inert as the garrulous flatterers of the present 
would have it believed, we already possessed a 
splendid example of what we see achieved by present 
enterprise." 

Count Giov. Pietro Marchi, himself the translator 
of the Pensieri Christiani (author unknown) into 
Serbo-Croatian, a noble of Spalato, was Principal 
of this Academy. Other members were Marco 
Dumaneo, 1 Archpriest of Spalato, Dr. Raduleo and 
Tanzlinger-Zanotti of Zara. All were passionately 
devoted to the cult of Slav letters and literature, 
and pioneers in compiling a great dictionary of the 
Serbo-Croat tongue. 

Thus under a Government, alien, but tolerant — 
perhaps in virtue of that mysterious kinship with 
the Slav blood which made the Venetian people 
something vaguely distinct and enigmatic in Italy 
— these ideas were disseminated in Dalmatia by 
the mighty voice of the race. 

A second great institution — an agricultural society 
— was founded at Zara in the eighteenth century. 
It annually distributed six hundred copies of a small 
treatise on agriculture for the use of the country 
people. These booklets were edited in Serbo- 
Croatian (five hundred copies printed in Italian). 
It was still in the eighteenth century that Stratico, 
the celebrated Bishop of Lesina, sent repeated in- 
structions to his priests urging the propagation of 
the Catholic cult in the Serbo-Croat tongue. " I 

1 I.e. Dumanic, just as Raduleo is Radulic and Tommaseo 
Tomasic. All personal names in Dalmatia ending in eo are of 
Slav origin ending in c. It was the fashion to Latinize names ; 
the eo is the same as the Latin ens. 

113 H 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

cannot tell you," he writes on one of these occa- 
sions, " what tenderness comes over me when I 
hear the divine praises and the offering of the Holy 
Sacrament of the Mass sung in the speech I imbibed 
with my mother's milk, and which I have, alas ! 
been made to lose and to forget owing to the unfor- 
tunate concatenation of circumstances, which com- 
pelled me leave my native Dalmatia at an early age." 

The priests of the county of Poljica, which com- 
prises a large part of territory of Spalato, Almissa, 
and Sign — the very centre of Dalmatia — were 
veritable apostles of the people during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, and many of them are justly 
famous in Dalmatian history for creating a focus 
of Slav culture in the very heart of the country. 

Far from hindering their labours, the Venetian 
Government even looked upon them as beneficial, 
as tending to support the popular resistance against 
the Turks ; and Venice, in her wisdom, could only 
approve. She had no intention of depriving the 
people of its nationality. We could multiply proofs 
of this independent development of Dalmatian 
Slavdom, exposing the precarious character of the 
Venetian domination. The Government was super- 
posed upon an indestructible bedrock of Slavdom ; 
it was no growth of the soil. Slav civilization did 
not look towards it. It maintained but a negative 
sovereignty, a kind of " colonial defence." 

Dalmatia's innate character also revealed itself 
in that galaxy of great artists which Dalmatia con- 
tributed to the glories of the Renaissance. They 
bear witness to the vitality of the Slav race and its 
beneficent influence upon the legacy of the Roman 
age in Dalmatia. 

114 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

George Matajevic of Sebenico, called Orsini il 
Dalmata (1441-1476) — the most original and the 
most specifically Dalmatian of these artists — the 
architect of the Loggia dei Mercanti in Ancona, of 
Sebenico Cathedral and the restored Palazzo Pubblico 
in Ragusa ; Matthew Gojkovic, who restored the 
beautiful Cathedral of Trau ; Francesco Laurana, 
called Schiavone (1425-1500), creator of the sweet 
and quaint Madonnas of Noto, Palermo and Sciacca 
and of two of the most admirable female portrait 
busts of the Renaissance * ; Lucian Laurana, Bra- 
mante's teacher, architect of the Palace of the Dukes 
of Urbino, the loftiest and purest architectural 
achievement of the second Renaissance ; George 
Culinovic, called Gregorio Schiavone (1450-1511), 
Squarcione's favourite pupil, who decorated his 
madonnas with Serbian prayers in Cyrillic lettering ; 
Ivan Duknovic (1445-1509), a noble of Trau, called 
il Dalmata, the collaborator of Mino da Fiesole ; 
Nicolo Schiavone, called dall'Arca (d. 1494), a 
pupil of Jacopo della Ouercia, architect of the tomb 
of St. Dominic in Bologna ; Andrew Medulic (1522- 
1582), called lo Schiavone, the bold Titianesque 
colorist ; Julius Glovic (Clovio), the greatest minia- 
ture painter of the fifteenth century, a Croat by 
birth, but of Macedonian origin ; and perhaps 
Carpaccio — all these highly gifted artists, naturally 
called Schiavone, i.e. Slavs, by the Italians of their 
day, most plainly show the hall-mark of their Slav 
origin in all their work, both in their technique, 
which is restrained, simple and archaic, but at the 
same time full of temperament and individuality, 

1 Battista Sforza in the Bargello in Florence, and a Princess of 
Aragon in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. 

115 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and in the moral and spiritual qualities reflected 
in their work. 

This fact has been mentioned by the more recent 
authorities on the history of Art, from among whom 
I will quote Wilhelm Rolfs, who in the introductory 
chapter of his ponderous work on Francesco Laurana 
(a native of Vrana, in the county of Zara), lays 
special stress upon the distinctly Slav element in 
the Dalmatian artists, which reveals itself in their 
keen perception, and adaptability, in their sweet 
and virginal temperament, in the tendency towards 
" character," in their faithfulness to tradition, and 
finally in their modest, almost morbid, love of anony- 
mity, and in the total absence of all ostentation. 

In these artists, as in the Slav or Latin poets, 
their contemporaries, we see clearly revealed what 
Taine defines as that dependence which binds indi- 
vidual originality to social life, and endows the 
inventive faculty of the artists with the active ener- 
gies of the nation. It therefore points to a deplorable 
superficiality, and reveals an inherent lack of analyti- 
cal power and a lapse from the strict standard of 
scientific morality in favour of the political passions 
of the moment, when certain writers upon art attempt 
to undervalue and even ignore those elements of 
race and milieu in which the Dalmatian artists 
lived and worked. 

The atmosphere which surrounded them was 
certainly that of the Italian Renaissance (tempered, 
however, by the inner vision of the Slav Fatherland), 
i.e. one of the highest manifestations of civilization 
in a great historic moment. How was tiny Dalmatia 
to escape this influence, when even France was 
scarcely able to do so, although imbued with the 

116 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Gothic spirit and possessing profound and original 
artistic vitality ? But to infer the nationality of 
a people from so great and universal an event as 
the Renaissance — and similarly from the previous 
fact of Roman influence — is as puerile as the wish 
to enslave it for the love of an epoch in art ; for this 
is to transform art, in whose essence it lies to bring 
freedom, into a moral fetter and political servitude. 

The Renaissance was, nevertheless, not the 
characteristic and determining factor in the history 
of Dalmatia. It was different with the personal 
contribution of the Dalmatian artists, who so 
admirably bore witness to the power and sturdy 
youthfulness of the Slav race. New and eloquent 
proof of the clear-cut individuality of Dalmatia, 
and of the presence within her of a national force 
which revealed itself both in her internal structure 
and in her manifestation of the artistic ideal as 
something different from the national forces at 
work in the neighbouring Peninsula ! And it is also 
a further eloquent proof of the antiquity of that 
process of Slavization to which Dalmatia owes her 
characteristic originality. 

This force was not the offspring of pastoral tribes 
invading the walls of ancient Romance cities, but 
of an admirable fusion of all classes, which took 
place long before the days of Dante, and which — 
the triumphal arches and inscriptions notwithstanding 
— imparts to Dalmatia the character of a cradle of 
Slav thought. Rich and powerful families of the 
highest Slav nobility, such as the Possedaria and 
Begna of Zara, the Fanfogna of Trau, and the 
Kacic of the Littoral, houses famous in war and 
politics, intermarried with the descendants of Latin 

117 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

gentes and transmuted the Roman spirit, while 
Venice paid no heed, just as Rome always refused 
to take an interest in the obscure birth-throes of 
the nations subject to her sway until in the end she 
feebly succumbed to their domination. Dalmatia, 
Slavized of old, in her turn conquered the alien 
element. 

The Alberti, Cavagnini, Zanotti, and Bruere 
Desrivaux did not, in fact, feel as if they were on 
Latin soil but, on the contrary, assimilated themselves 
to the Slav element, yielding to the character of 
the country. 

This phenomenon has persisted right up to our 
own time in the case of the noble houses of the 
Borelli and the Cambi, who have proved themselves 
more conscious of their duty towards the land of 
their adoption than many purely Slav sons of 
Dalmatia. 

That subsequently many families of the Slav 
aristocracy went over to the opposite camp and 
proved unfaithful to the Slav traditions of their 
race, is an undeniable fact, though not surprising 
to anybody who will reflect how great and how 
manifold were the difficulties amid which in those 
days the frail lamp of national consciousness was 
kept alive. 

Dalmatia was completely isolated. The Turk was 
master in the Serbo-Croat lands of the interior, 
whence came nothing but the plague and caravans 
dealing in furs and slaves. The lands beyond the 
Velebit mountains, though the tradition of a liberal 
class constitution was still alive, languished in the 
grip of a barren feudalism. Communications were 
completely severed, and everybody turned to Venice. 

118 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dalmatia drifted to leeward like some great galleon 
with her two hundred thousand survivors of the 
first great shipwreck of the Jugoslav race in the 
Middle Ages. What wonder if beneath an horizon 
already growing darker and stormier, with the 
national thought prostrate and blighted by daily 
contact with misery and with the Venetian bureau- 
cracy, the radiant vision that loomed behind the 
national literature grew faint ? What more natural 
than that many families who were dependent for 
their living upon the Serene Republic and her 
heritage upon the Adriatic, should oppose a Venetian 
lethargy to the summons of the heralds of The Idea, 
which now penetrated from the far plains of Croatia 
and Serbia ? 

The eighteenth century sufficiently explains the 
apostacy of the italianized oligarchy and its struggle 
against the Slav spring tide. But flashes of light 
from time to time pierced the darkness with the 
thought of National Unity — even during the period 
of the most abject servitude. 

Tommaseo was therefore perfectly right in asserting 
that " Dalmatia had kept herself Slav better than 
Italy had kept herself Italian." * He meant that 
a country which had been for centuries under the 
government of a State Italian in blood and language, 
if not in sentiment, and deprived of all contact 
whatsoever with the brothers of its race, deserved 
more credit for having remained true to the call 
of the blood than Italy, which, though divided and 
in great part subject to alien rule, found neverthe- 
less in provident nature and the shadow of Eternal 
Rome the consciousness of her national Ego. 

1 April 8, 1840, Episiolario II, 152. 
119 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

And yet our people was beset by many tempta- 
tions, nor was there any attraction that could have 
lured it away from the great Republic. Politically 
Venice was all-powerful where Dalmatia was con- 
cerned. For more than a century the Dalmatian 
people were yet to remain under the alien domina- 
tion, to which they remained faithful so long as 
there remained a single ray of hope that they might 
win by legitimate means and intellectual progress 
what Venice had failed to give them, viz. a father- 
land. And if they paid homage to Imperial Venice, 
they never permitted themselves to be dazzled by 
the splendours of the Bride of the Sea, but clung 
tenaciously to their mother-tongue, for which even 
Tommaseo reserved the gentlest side of his wayward, 
stubborn and bitter temperament. And in my 
opinion the most eloquent symbol of that obstinate 
character, which was revered by all social classes 
in the little country, is to be found in that Dalmatian 
peasant, who " in the twenty odd years he has spent 
here " — as Tommaseo wrote to Capponi from Venice — 
" has not yet learnt Italian, but has a heart which 
at once responds to every proof of kindness," x and 
whom the great man kept near himself even in the 
midst of all his political labours for Her who was 
not his true mother-country. 

By this I do not mean to deny, or to minimize 
the importance of the fact, that all along the Dalma- 
tian coast there was a Latin dialect spoken which 
was subsequently replaced by Italo- Venetian. Cer- 
tainly Italian was spoken there, and fortunately it 
is spoken there still. But the ancient Romance 
idiom was spoken in maritime Dalmatia long before 

1 April 8, 1840, Epistolario II, 152. 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Venetian rule. And when it became quietly 
extinct, or even earlier, it was replaced north of the 
Narenta by the Venetian dialect, whereas in Ragusa, 
which was not allied to Venice, it was retained in 
certain judicial forms until the sixteenth century, 
when it gave place among the educated classes to 
the Tuscan speech. This, although admirably spoken, 
was always written so vilely up to the beginning of 
the nineteenth century, that the distinguished Dalma- 
tian historian, Sperato Nodilo, criticizing Resti's 
Ragusan chronicles, could truthfully say that the 
Ragusans could write only in Latin or in Serbian. 
And this remark applies equally to central and 
northern Dalmatia. Up to the first decades of the 
nineteenth century the Dalmatians scarcely ever 
wrote in Italian : they simply spoke it. The Venetian 
idiom was retained, principally as the State lan- 
guage, for imperative considerations of administration, 
commerce, navigation and communication with the 
Metropolis. It was furthermore retained as the 
mark of a privileged nobility, which, though more 
closely akin to the peasantry than was the aristocracy 
of the former age, was yet content to vegetate after 
the manner of the Venetian. Without schools, 
without intellectual food, how could the unfortunate 
province fail to sink into decay and intellectual 
unproductivity ? Our forefathers had travelled and 
lived in contact with the dramatic events of the 
conflict between East and West ; moreover, the 
national spirit and the cult of Slav letters had en- 
lightened the Dalmatian people from above, and 
such of them, nobles or burghers, as were educated 
in Italy had learnt from her to love their native 
tongue all the more fervently. But the seventeenth 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

century dried up the tender shoots, and Dalmatia 
became poor, stagnant and weary, as if suspended 
in the void, almost lost to her race. 

Yet always, at one point or another of the coast, 
some voice would make itself heard, like the voices 
of Kacl<5 and Giorgi, showing that the Slav soul of 
Dalmatia was not spent, but only lying benumbed 
in the bog of a regimen that had become stale and 
barren, but from which a generation to come might 
yet recall her to new life, like the enchanted Princess 
in the old fairy tale. 



122 



CHAPTER II 

Fall of Venice — Earliest movement in Dalmatia for union with 
Croatia (1797) — Illyrism (1830) — Niccolo Tommaseo — His 
genius — Tommaseo the herald of the Illyric idea and the 
union of Dalmatia with the Serbo-Croat lands — The Scintille — 
The poem "Alia Dalmazia " — Zara and the Slav Congress 
in Prague (1848) — Cause and effect of the Dalmatian 
national movement — Dalmatian academic youth in Padua — ■ 
Count Orsato Pozza — Slav activity of the Dalmatians in Padua 
and in Venice (1843-1849) — Events of 1848 and the Serbo- 
Croat War against Hungary — Nature of the Slavo-Magyar 
conflict — N. Tommaseo's attitude towards the movement of 
1848 — Speech of Count Cavour (20th October, 1848) — Effects 
of the war. 

Venice fell, and " in her death, like so many other 
dead, was endowed with all the virtues in the obliga- 
tory funeral orations. There was no further question 
of recrimination. All her faults were forgotten and 
only the records of her glory remained." x 

After the obsequies of an aristocracy which had 
committed suicide, the first thought of a group of 
Dalmatian nobles and citizens was to demand the 
restoration of that Public Right, which had been 
forcibly suspended in 1420 and consecrated by 
the subconscious feeling of community of blood and 
language with the countries beyond the mountains 

1 Pisani. La Dalmatie de 1797 & I $ I 5, Paris 1892. Cf. also 
the verdict on the Venetian regime in Dalmatia by Charles Diehl 
in his latest book Une Republique Patricienne. Venise. Paris, 
Flammarion, 1915. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

where that same Right prevailed. Several eminent 
men, like Lelio Cippico, Archbishop of Spalato, 
Count George Voinovich, 1 Blaskovic, Bishop of Ma- 
karska, the Spalatan nobles Cindro, degli Alberti 
and Milesi, with several politicians of Sebenico and 
Zara, addressed a petition to the Ban of Croatia 
(on ioth July, 1797, two months after the tragic 
abdication of Venice) demanding the union of Dal- 
matia with the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, 
which had concluded the well-known treaty with 
Hungary in 1102. Owing to the energetic opposi- 
tion of the Austrian Chancellor Thugut, the project 
suffered shipwreck and was not mooted again until 
i860. But it was a valuable indication, an eloquent 
symptom of popular feeling in Dalmatia. 

It was an incontrovertible proof that neither the 
Dinaric Alps nor the Velebit were such a Chinese 
Wall as is sometimes suggested even to-day. And 
even if the dictum " II n'y a plus de Pyrenees " 
was not true, yet it is most certain that the mountains 
which form the geological backbone of Dalmatia 
are neither sufficiently high nor sufficiently impervious 
to prevent ideas from circulating between the plain 
and the coast. 

After a century of painful experience, the idea of 
such a half-wa}/ house on the path towards integral 
national union, has been drowned in a sea of blood. 
This idea, which Magyar and German alike recognized 
as bound to lead to Jugoslav Unity, was for a full 
half century the standard of an indomitable phalanx 
of Dalmatian Slavs educated in Italy ; it was the 
" countersign between the sons of one mother," 
it was the " pole star " which, after bitter tension, 

1 Great-grandfather of the author. 
124 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

gained by its spontaneous and irresistible force the 
practically unanimous support of the Dalmatian 
people. 

The magic word sung by the Slovene poet Vodnik 
and partly realized by Napoleon — who may therefore 
be considered just as much one of the fathers of our 
movement as of the Italian — set the first timid 
fires burning. 

Illyrism was the first attempt at the achievement 
of spiritual unity on the part of a race torn away 
from the traditions of its past. The movement 
was born in Croatia, between the Drave and the 
Save ; it was the work of the Croats, whose leader, 
Ljudevit Gaj, was a native of the Zagorje, the 
Croatian Umbria, a land of wide-flung verdant 
hills, between oak-forests and vineyards, in the 
shadow of feudal castles. 

Giuseppe Mazzini was not above taking an interest 
in it in 1857, an d when the vengeance of German 
Centralism had already fallen upon the Croat and 
Serb lands and upon poor Dalmatia, Mazzini, in 
his Lettere Slave reminded the Italians of the memor- 
able awakening, which he regarded not as spent, 
but merely as awaiting a more propitious time to 
break forth anew in action. 1 

And Mazzini was right in attributing such great 
importance to the movement of 1830. It was a 
real revolution. 

By it the clouds were rent apart and for one fugitive 
moment the vision of the Nation awaiting the call 
of destiny was revealed. All Dalmatia roused herself 

1 These glorious pages by Mazzini on Ljudevit Gaj and the 
Illyrian movement are to be found in the Letter to a Friend (16th 
June, 1857), Pagine di Vita (Perugia, 1915); and Nathan, Visioni 
d' avvenire (Roma, 1915). 

125 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

from the lethargy of those forty years which succeeded 
the fall of Venice, and looked toward the horizon. 
During the period which preceded the Illyrian 
movement (between 1815 and 1830) — the saddest 
and most inglorious of all that have passed over 
Dalmatia — Tommaseo l had taken refuge on the 
Italian shore ; and this his departure from a Dalmatia 
which had even offered him " the tragedies of Alfieri 
played in Sebenico," was after all no more than a 
confession. Slav Dalmatia in her sleep seemed a 
worn-out land, without vitality and barren of 
promise. 

A great oppression, a great void caused by the 
innate impossibility of a political wedlock with 
the other side, and the tarrying of the dawn above 
the towering hills — this shipwreck of an entire 
long period of history prevailed upon the brilliant 
youth to cross the Adriatic and go to Italy — where 
he found his lost native land again. And in the 
fervent love for his adopted mother he renewed the 
strength of his indomitable Slav temperament, 
aspirations and character. 

Neither the moment nor the nature of this work 
permit me to sketch the exceedingly complex physiog- 
nomy of the great Dalmatian, the Fra Girolamo 
of the nineteenth century, whose intricate psychology 
can in any case only be analysed by a mind akin to 
his own in virtue of a Slav origin coupled with Italian 
culture. All Italian attempts to define the inner- 
most nature of this extraordinary personality came 
to grief, and were bound to come to grief, because 
Tommaseo can be neither adequately understood 
nor appreciated without a profound and to all intents 

1 See biographical note on Tommaseo at the foot of Appendix I. 

126 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

inborn intuition of the Slav world to which Tommaseo, 
in spite of all that may be said to the contrary, 
belongs with every inmost fibre of his soul. 

An altruism imbued with a piety less humanitarian 
and more tragically passionate than that of Mazzini, 
recalling the misereor super turbam in its Slav inter- 
pretation by Tolstoi and Dostoievski, mysticism and 
sensuousness, ignorance of the highest art in — shall I 
say ? — architectural composition of thought, a bitter- 
ness tempered by infinite kindliness, an unconscious 
vanity, the spirit of contradiction, a faith unshaken 
by the local and parochial principle of historical 
communities, the infinite depths of Christian philo- 
sophic thought, overlaid by a thin veil of Pantheism 
— all these qualities and defects reveal in him at 
times the Dalmatian, but always the Slav. He 
delivers a fine series of sly thrusts at Cesare Cantu, 
and finally falls out with his great love, Dante, for 
having denied him the Italian nationality and fixed 
the frontiers of Italy at the Quarnero. He has 
a way of protesting, of stating and re-stating, now 
tenderly, now bitterly — as though he felt the weakness 
of his own arguments — that he is Italian. 

Yes, and so he certainly is, but at the same time he 
is indubitably Slav. If you but touch a certain 
chord within him, which — although carried away 
by the warm Italian current — he never ceased to 
cherish in the shrine of his sturdily, completely and 
superhumanly honest heart, you will feel in the 
tone of his replies, of his apologies, the doubt lest 
he be not able to incarnate in all desired complete- 
ness, the spirit that hovers over the lagoon or above 
the Tuscan hills and the race that hearkened to him, 
faithful and frugal, on the arid Dalmatian shores; 

127 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and he breaks into confessions of patriotism, into 
cries of " our sweet language," " our poor people," 
into such an ideal and profoundly genuine appeal 
to the future of the land of his birth and the promise 
of his nationality, that no honest and trustworthy 
spectator is left in any doubt as to the inmost Slav 
nature of the great man, or the conflict which went 
on in his soul until his death. He presents a most 
singular, and perhaps an unique instance in modern 
history of a union of two worlds of ideas. At the 
same time he will always be a profoundly interesting 
demonstration of the metamorphosis which an 
obstinate will can impose upon human nature. 
But by that sense of constant anguish lest he should 
appear something different from the dream he 
cherished, Tommaseo reveals the defect in his triple 
armour and the incompleteness of his victory over 
atavism. 

Tommaseo has in fact given far more to our people 
than to Italy, to whom he nevertheless gave so much. 

The Slav scope of his insatiable activity has a 
wider reach than the scope of his Italian activity. 
And the distant consequences of this Slav activity 
have also proved more enduring than were his fears 
for beloved Venice, his educational and political 
counsels to Italy, his fundamental studies of the 
Italian language, the myriad forms and thoughts 
scattered throughout his works which afford peren- 
nial pasture in Italy to many minds falsely credited 
with originality. 

The testimony which he in his rugged virtue 
bears to Slav vitality, to the Slav hopes of his native 
country, to the mission of the Serbian race, carries 
far more weight than all his defence of the land of 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

his adoption, for whom so many great ones have 
woven immortal garlands. Tommaseo was not a 
greater thinker than Gioberti or Rosmini, nor a 
greater writer than Mazzini or Manzoni, nor a 
greater poet than Leopardi or Foscolo ; but his 
true greatness lies precisely in that unsurpassed 
fusion of the vibrations of two national souls, in 
his having written both the Preface to the Letters 
of St. Catherine of Siena and the Iskrice, the 
Dante Commentary and the analysis of the Illyrian 
songs, in having corresponded with Capponi and 
with the leaders of the Slav Renaissance, in having 
foretold with Mazzini — yet more strongly than 
Mazzini — the advent of a new world at the gates of 
Italy and of having prophesied, in detail, the alliance 
between two nationalities so diverse from one 
another who nevertheless are each so admirably 
the complement of the other ; an alliance based 
upon this understanding and by this need of mutually 
complementing and respecting each other. And 
if the Italians honour in Tommaseo the great thinker 
and the brilliant writer, and more particularly the 
supreme originator of new forms and new and 
unexpected mental attitudes, the Southern Slavs 
from the Drave to the Adriatic see yet far more 
in him, viz. the greatest herald of their hopes 
and the most authoritative representative of their 
thought with the peoples of the Western world, 
under the auspices of an Italy ever unconscious of 
the profound significance of such mediation. Nor 
could this mission ever have been performed in all 
its completeness except by a man who, like Tommaseo, 
clung with every secret fibre of his being to the 
maternal bosom of Slav Dalmatia. 

129 I 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Tommaseo was one of the promoters of the Illyrian 
Idea. He was in close correspondence with its leaders, 
with Gaj, Kukuljevid, BabukiC and Stanko Vraz. 
To Gaj he wrote from Venice, on 31st October, 1841 : 

" The charming expressions with which you refer to me, 
the interpreter of which our friend Popovic kindly made 
himself, awakened in my heart the lively desire to see you 
and to join you with all my soul. It gives me great pleasure 
to take this occasion to express the respect I feel for you, 
for you, who are irradiating our nation with so much light 
and inflaming it with new fire. Continue, my dear sir, in 
that arduous path upon which you have already cast the 
seed of so many good things. We here are tied both hand 
and foot, but we follow you from afar with our eyes, and 
our prayers will accompany your steps." 

Tommaseo had already in that year written the 
booklet entitled Iskrice (Scintille= sparks), which 
became in a way a book of prophecy for our people, 
a cycle of thirty- three prose poems, wholly imbued 
with the love for his Dalmatia and his people. 

He wrote to Gaj — before his friend Kukuljevic 
had published the little masterpiece in Zagreb — 
that he had wished to have had these little popular 
addresses, " penned in our sweet native speech," 1 
printed in Venice ; but the Austrian censor would 
not permit him to do so. He therefore found himself 
obliged to forward them to Vienna whence they 
would be sent on to Zagreb, and he would give 
notice of their arrival to the great Croatian patriot. 

Translating into action the word of Mazzini that 
" a people which has kept its memories, its hope 
and its faith sleeps the lion's sleep," Tommaseo 

1 Translated from the original Serbo-Croatian by Tommaseo. 
The letter appeared in the Proceedings of the Jugoslav Academy 
in Zagreb (1909). 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

urged the Dalmatian people with words of fire, 
of grief, of tragic but indomitable hope, to rouse 
itself from the sleep of centuries and to take its 
proper place once more in a sacred union with the 
sister provinces. 

" My poor people, thou knowest not thy story ; like a 
spurious child thou knowest neither the name, nor the deeds 
of the forefathers " (Scintilla xvii). " The nations that 
surround thee, my little Dalmatia, have nothing in common 
with thee ; they are either much greater or much smaller 
than thou art ; either sea or mountain or, even more than 
seas or mountains, customs and history rise between them 
and thee . . . begin a new era of love with thy sisters, a 
new life" (Scintilla xx). "My Dalmatia; thou art small 
among thy Jugoslav sisters ; but a voice tells me that thou 
wilt not be the meanest nor the least beautiful among them ; 
but thy songs will echo afar and soothe the slumbers of thy 
sons in their graves, who died believing in thee and shedding 
tears over the increase of the strangers. . . ." (Scintilla 
xxii). " Priests ! we recommend to you our mother-tongue, 
subtle and full, strong and sweet ; still young but with a 
vigorous and perennial youth. With it you will penetrate 
into the vitals of our people, and awaken every noble feeling 
within it . . . commending our children to your care, we 
pray you to rear them in the expectancy of noble things, 
in active love, in strong humility. ..." (Scintilla xxxi). 
" Long ago the lion lost his luxuriant mane, his teeth and 
his claws . . . but what little was left of his claws was 
Illyrian strength . . . buried for centuries in ignorance, we 
still have our quick brain, our honest speech, our keen thoughts. 
Race both simple and dignified, peace-loving and passionate, 
thou showest forth thy spirit in bodily form, pure and grace- 
ful in strength, lithe in muscularity, with austere brows 
and gentle smile. Blush not, my people, for thine origin ; 
only see to it that thy blood remains pure, and the contagion 
of city ways will not infect thee with debility, pain and 
shame " (Scintilla xxii). 1 

1 The Scintille were written by Tommaseo in the purest Serbo- 
Croatian, and are one of the standard classics of our literature. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Words of fire which in themselves should suffice 
to pull down, like a house of cards, the edifice of 
lies built up by dried-up hearts and warped minds 
brought up in hatred of the National Idea in Dalmatia, 
which was represented to an ignorant public as 
being an Austrian (!) importation and not inborn 
in the Dalmatian people ! Mazzini hit the mark. 
" The Slav aspirations " — wrote that great man— 
" are not an ephemeral ebullition provoked by transi- 
tory causes, but the natural result of ancient historical 
tradition." The whole Illyrian movement and the 
just quoted spontaneous manifestations of Tommaseo's 
mind form an eloquent comment upon these words. 

After having written the Iskrice — this genuine 
product of the Slav Risorgimento — Tommaseo felt 
the need of coming into closer touch with the vague 
aspirations of his people. And here he shows the 
clear-headedness of his second, his Latin nature, by 
tracing with dazzling clearness the programme of 
a distant future in his poem " Alia Dalmazia " 
(probably written in 1845) : 

" Ne ben d'altrui ne" tua ben fosti mai : 
Patria viva non ha chi di te nacque. 

Ne" piu tra '1 monte e il mar, povero lembo 
Di terra e poche ignude isole sparte, 

He translated ten of the Scintille into Italian himself and published 
them in Venice in 1841. MS. translations of the rest probably 
also exist, but they have so far not been discovered. The first 
original Serbo-Croatian edition is that of Zagreb, 1844, and the 
most recent edition was also published in Zagreb, by the Croatian 
Literary Society, Matica Hrvatska, in 1888. 

A first complete Italian translation of the Scintille, with a his- 
torical and critical introduction by the author of these pages, 
appeared in the collection Opuscoli della Giovine Europa, edited by 
Giorgio d'Acandia. Ed. Battiato, Catania, 1916. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

O patria mia, sarai ; ma la rinata 
Serbia (guerriera mano, e mite spirto) 
E quanti campi, all' italo sorriso 
Nati, impaluda l'ottoman letargo, 
Teco una vita ed un voler faranno, 
E darann' entro alle tue vene stanche 
Vigor novello. E tu, porgendo fida 
La destra a Italia, ad Ellade la manca, 
In sacre le unirai danze ed amplessi. 

Che in te, seconda Italia, Iddio compose 

Serbica stirpe, delle umane forme 

E degli affetti le diverse tempre, 

E raise in armonia gl'impeti e il senno : 

Lingua ti die di giovanili ardori, 

Che in quante Europa suoni, orma maggiore 

Tien delle forti eta quand-era il mondo 

Bambino al dubbio, e nell'amor gigante. 

Soffri gli spregi e la miseria, e spera ; 

O poveretta mia . . ." 1 



1 " No alien's possession wert thou, nor thine own : 
A son of thine could boast no living fatherland. 

Henceforth no more betwixt the mountain and the sea 

A barren limb of earth and bleak and scattered isles, 

[My country, shalt thou be ; but Serbia reborn 

(She of the warrior hand and gentle spirit) 

And lands untold, born i'th Italian smile, 

Sunk in the slough of Ottoman despond, 

:Will form with thee one life, one single will, 

And shall infuse into thy weary veins 

iFresh vigour ; and thou, giving loyally 

To Italy thy right hand, and thy left to Hellas, 

Shall hnk them in sacred dances and embraces. 

For God hath formed within thee, second Italy, 
JO Serbian race, a great diversity 
Of human form, emotion, temperament 
And wrought in harmony the impulse and the mind : 
Gave thee a speech of youthful hardihood, 
'Which, as it rings through Europe, bears afar 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

A diplomatic note despatched by the Court of 
St. James's to Metternich's Chancellery could not 
have expressed a political programme more lucidly, 

Tommaseo's verses might be approximately ren- 
dered in prose as follows : 

" Dalmatia is an arm half-severed from the living body 
of the Serbo-Croat race. Alien life, failing to harmonize 
with her inmost nature, painfully penetrates her, forcing 
its way in. She becomes Serbian, Turkish, Italian, French, 
but she never became the possession of the alien because 
she could not, however much her masters strove to deny 
her nationality ; nor was she mistress of her own house, 
because she was subjected to so many dominations foreign 
to her blood. Yet her sons could boast no living fatherland. 
But Dalmatia will have a fatherland, she will see a brighter 
future. She will no longer be a derelict limb of earth, nor 
a few bleak isles, but Serbia reborn and all the lands at present 
bowed beneath the Turkish yoke — Bosnia, Herzegovnia, Old 
Serbia, Macedonia — lands born in civilization — whose highest 
expression is the ' Italian smile ' — will one day form with 
Dalmatia ' one life, one single will,' that is to say, a National 
State. 

" The sister provinces will infuse fresh vigour into 
her weary veins. 

"Nevertheless, although united with her sisters, 
Dalmatia will preserve her own distinct individuality 
■ — herein Tommaseo is an autonomist, but such 
a one that all Slav patriots of 1916 can agree with 
him — and will become the intellectual and commercial 
intermediary between Italy (the West) and Greece 
(the East) and perhaps even compose the hatreds 
of the Magyars and Germans, who cherish hostile 



The ancient trace of stronger ages, when the world 
Was but a babe in doubt, in love a giant. 
Suffer contempt, and misery, and hope thou ! 
Poor little land ! . . ." 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

sentiments towards the Slavs and towards Italian 
liberty, a mission confided not only to Dalmatia 
but to the whole Serbian race by the laws of history, 
by the eminent spiritual qualities of the race and 
by the ' speech of youthful hardihood,' where lie 
enshrined the traditions of stronger ages." 

As for Dalmatia, the great patriot sees no solution 
for her troubles, no redemption from her hybrid 
history of a thousand years claimed by innumer- 
able foreign dominations, except in a federal (cantonal) 
union with a great Serbia. The other branches of 
the nations will in their turn become absorbed 
in the great union. 1 

This, then, is the future of peace, of greatness, 

1 In 1 85 1 the project was mooted in Zagreb that all Slav peoples 
should be given one language, which would obviously have been 
the Russian. Tommaseo, deeply interested in every manifesta- 
tion of Serbo-Croat life, strenuously opposed the scheme. From 
Corfu he wrote the following significant words : "I appeal to the 
scholars of Zagreb, who for the last fifteen years have done so much 
to revive their native tongue, I appeal to them for the time being 
to limit this conception, too ample to render it realizable ; Let 
them look upon the Slavia of the South as a separate and already 
sufficiently great entity ; let them by unanimity of study first bestow 
greater unity upon their own language ; let them purge not only 
their language, but their style from German dross and teach it 
to expound their thoughts with that ready frankness and graceful 
terseness which in the songs and speech of the people renders the 
Slav spirit so akin to the Greek and Italian ; let them, instead 
of stretching their desires to remote unions, first unite the far 
too divided strata of their own society among themselves, and 
break down the inconvenient wall that stands between the scholars 
and the people, between masters and disciples." — Secondo Esilio, 
i. 161. 

This project, if it was ever seriously entertained, fell to the 
ground, and was never mentioned again. But both Zagreb and 
Belgrade responded whole-heartedly to Tommaseo's fervent appeal. 
To-day the wall is broken down from the Drave to the Adriatic, 
and the " Dinaric Alps " will certainly not rise again 1 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of progress that Tommaseo demands — nay prophesies 
for Dalmatia. Tommaseo the poet never dreams. 
It is the principal defect of his poetry, but a defect 
that renders it most precious for us. 

Tommaseo 's poems are documents. They are 
snatches of politics, psychology, or religion which 
you find again in his prose, which is often pure 
poetry, just as his poetry is often simply rhythmic 
prose. So that from his works, as from the stones 
of a scattered mosaic, you may reconstruct in prose 
the entire programme of his poem " Alia Dalmazia." 
My readers must, however, permit me to reserve 
this demonstration — which, by the way, presents 
no difficulties — for another, more suitable occasion. 

Throughout Dalmatia, but especially in Zara, 
the Illyrian movement found a strong echo. The 
municipality was almost entirely Slav. The then 
Mayor, Nakic, had — like an ensign — nailed a frankly 
Slav programme to the mast. In 1836 Petranovic 
— with whom Tommaseo afterwards had an acri- 
monious polemic because the Serbian patriot unjustly 
reproached the great Dalmatian exile with forget- 
fulness of his duties as a Slav patriot — founded 
the first Slav review, the Srfiski Dalmatinski 
Almanah in Zara. Kuzmanic published a second 
review, the Zora Dalmatinska {Dalmatian Dawn) 
also in Zara. In 1849 the fi rs ^ politico-literary 
society was founded in Zara, the Slavjanska Lipa 
(the Slav Linden), which had a membership of two 
hundred, and was suppressed in 1850 by the Austrian 
Government. It was Zara which in 1848 sent the 
reply to the Slav Congress of Prague, convoked in 
token of protest against the German Assembly in 
Frankfort, the very gathering which inspired Cavour 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in a celebrated speech to utter his prophesy anent 
militant Pangermanism. In the reply of the citizens 
of Zara we find re-affirmed in the face of the attempts 
at hegemony contemplated in Germany, the inflexible 
will to live united with our Slav brothers under 
the constitutional rule of Austrian, not German 
sovereigns. 

While regretting the fact that they are too late 
to send a delegate of their own to Prague, the signa- 
tories declare that they so far accept the decisions 
of the majority in the Assembly, and pray the 
latter to take all measures best calculated to ensure 
that the seventeen million Austrian Slavs may assert 
themselves and develop within the bosom of the 
Common State. 1 

Many of the signatories to the address seceded 
later on and joined the camp of those hostile to the 
realization of the Slav idea, but this notwithstanding, 
the fact of it remains, with its ultimate causes and 
its consequences — a striking proof of the spontaneous 
nature of the Slav movement and of the true sentiments 
of the capital of Dalmatia at this time of the great 
reshuffling of ideas, the result of the awakening of 
the nation under the lash of Tommaseo's words 
and those of the fathers of the Serbo-Croat Risorgi- 
mento. The Dalmatian academic youth in Padua 
helped to fan the sacred fire. 

Before going into further details, however, may 
we be permitted a general observation, rendered 

1 This address was signed by the flower of Zara's citizens, by 
Count Giovanni Pavlovid, Count Francesco Borelli, Count Cosimo 
Begna-Possedaria, Dr. Filippi, Demetrio Medovic, the Hon. Domenico 
Lantana, Dr. Manzin, Dr. Cesare de Pellegrini, Sigismondo de 
Grazio, Count Deda Mitrovic, etc. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

necessary by a most dangerous theory which has 
been advanced quite recently, a theory which is 
tending to engender a painful feeling of uncertainty 
into the most honest and dispassionate minds. 

A national movement is always an organic move- 
ment. It is the florescence of a complex entity 
which slowly and in accordance with the more or 
less favourable conditions of its surroundings, both 
within and without, arrives at a state of consciousness 
of itself and of its organic functions. To assert 
that an isolated phenomenon, however powerful, 
or even one directly foreign to the spirit of a nation, 
could produce a great national movement is no less 
ingenuous than to assert (as was done fifty years 
ago and perhaps is done even to-day in certain 
religious camps) that the sale of indulgences for the 
building of St. Peter's was the reason for the Reforma- 
tion, or that the order given by Louis XVI to the 
French deputies to vacate the Salle des Deliberations 
at Versailles was the cause of the Revolution. 

The Dalmatian movement, with the Croatian and 
the Serbian, are three movements, distinct as regards 
time, but manifestation of one sole national organism 
— they are not isolated phenomena in space. They 
are perfectly spontaneous and organic phenomena, 
the outcome of multiplex natural causes, and they 
are connected with a vast national movement all 
around, which exercised a profound influence upon 
our own, in virtue of the identical causes that 
generated it ; just as in like manner the more speci- 
fically Serbian awakening strongly influenced the 
Greek, the Bulgarian and even the Roumanian Re- 
naissance. Any one refusing to take into account 
this sociological fact would commit himself to eternal 

138 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ignorance concerning the origins and development 
of a European factor, which has nevertheless been 
important enough to hasten the outbreak of the 
present monstrous European conflagration — or he 
would at least incur the suspicion of bad faith. 

The Czech, Magyar and Polish nations — to confine 
ourselves to Eastern Europe — have undergone 
identical transformations — domination by a foreign 
element, national awakening — movement for union. 
A person, for instance, who having known Prague 
in 1830 and revisited it in 1900, might, if we are to 
believe the Czech historians, easily believe that — 
apart from the buildings — he had seen two different 
cities belonging to two completely different countries. 
Much importance is attached in these days to 
architecture as an indication of nationality. But 
all that marvellous architecture which renders Prague 
one of the most beautiful mediaeval cities of the 
world, is not Slav architecture. 

Yet who would dare to ask the Czechs to renounce 
their national individuality for the sake of the 
builders of their marvellous bridges, churches and 
palaces ? For the sake of the German element which 
reigned supreme in the civilization and language 
of the country until the awakening initiated by 
Kolar and Palacky ? 

Moreover, that brilliant Czech movement, concern- 
ing which a book recently appeared in Italy, 1 
admittedly exercised a powerful influence upon 
the Croatian and Dalmatian movement. Gaj and 
the whole of the Illyrian movement proceeded — 
apart from the compelling spiritual need of the 

1 G. Stuparic, La Nazione Czeca, Collez. la Giovane Europa. 
Ed. Battiato, Catania, 1914. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

national soul — -from the fruitful contact with the 
contemporary Czech movement and the truly national, 
but very soon anti-Liberal Magyar movement. 
Similarly, since the end of the eighteenth century, 
the Poles have influenced our literature, and the 
poet and prose writer Ignazio Giorgi, who of all the 
Dalmatian poets stands nearest to us modern writers, 
was directly inspired by the Polish poet, Kohanovski, 
to whom Mickiewicz devotes an eloquent chapter. 

The Dalmatian awakening was in its turn the 
outcome of the Croato-Illyrian movement and also 
directly of the Czech. All these elements of intellec- 
tual rebirth in the surrounding countries — more 
particularly the Slav — engrafted themselves upon 
the indigenous stock of language and national song 
which attests the homogeneity of the great geo- 
graphic and ethnic Serbo-Croato-Dalmatian current. 
They were the elements that fathered our own 
Revival. Let no one despise the Czechs, the Croats 
and the Dalmatians, for being late in winning through 
to the full consciousness of their national individuality. 

Late arrivals upon the European stage, they found 
older civilizations already established, the Greek 
in the Eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, the 
Latin and its Italian offshoot in the west and upon 
the shores of the Adriatic, and the German in the 
north. They were strongly influenced by them. 
So much so that for a time it seemed as if they must 
inevitably be swallowed up in this mare magnum, 
which was indeed the fate that befell the Elbe Slavs. 

But the greater number resisted successfully, and 
although they assimilated many elements of the 
older civilizations, they ended by practically emanci- 
pating themselves. The last to do this was that 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

fraction of our people in Dalmatia which, dwelling 
by the sea, was more exposed to the lure of Italian 
culture, to which our Tommaseo succumbed entirely 
and on principle. It is not the least of the glories 
of the Italians of Italy that they were able to under- 
stand at the time of the Risorgimento the nature 
and the upward path of our rebirth — unlike a certain 
handful of sons of Dalmatia who were only too like 
those peasant youths who, having donned Parisian 
dress, deny the coif and apron of their mothers. 
Surely this is a great fact, redounding more to 
Italy's glory than any territorial conquest. 

Tommaseo had sounded the reveille in the camp 
of the younger generation. His immortal Iskrice 
were read by everybody in manuscript in Dalmatia 
and in Padua long before they were published. 

They said : — 

" Young men, ye who go forth to strange lands to seek the 
science that your own cannot give you, be ye the hope and 
joy and not the grief and danger of your native land. Be 
ever mindful of it, preserve its virile native speech. And then 
learn also this other, and let neither exclude the other from 
your hearts ; let there be neither war nor yet a chasm in 
your thoughts. Neither a government nor a soul divided 
against itself can live. Be Illyrians, and you will be all the 
more susceptible to the Italian spirit. You are better than 
many among those who look upon you as the off-scourings 
of the nations. Defend, I pray you, everywhere defend the 
honour of your country ; be firm of purpose, frank and sin- 
cere in your speech, be strong at times, more often gentle, 
and always loving. Love truth better than gold, your 
brothers more than life. Consider the customs of other 
peoples and respect them without blindly following or 
blindly insulting them." « 

1 This Iskrice was translated by Tommaseo himself in his volume 
Scintille. It is the twenty-fourth in the Zagreb edition. Cf 
N. Tommaseo, Scintille, p. 76. Ed. Catania, 1916. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The youth of Dalmatia absolutely fulfilled the 
hopes placed upon it by the Great Dalmatian. 
Vastly different from Tommaseo's contemporaries 
— see his Memorie Poetiche, in which there is as 
yet no trace of Slavism — the Dalmatian students 
in Padua were stimulated by the great example of 
the land of Giotto and Dante into clinging yet more 
lovingly to their Slav Mother " absent yet present." 

One of the leaders of this younger generation was 
Count Orsato Pozza, a patrician of Ragusa, the last 
descendant of a very ancient Slav house, originally 
of Cattaro, and inscribed ever since the eleventh 
century among the nobility of the rising Republic. 
Let my readers not be misled by the Italian form 
of the name. The Pozza were natives of the Serbian 
interior and originally called themselves Pocid, 
or Bocinic\ These forms of their name they em- 
ployed as Rectors or Senators of the Republic of 
Ragusa, in the letters addressed to the Serbian 
princes (see Miklosid, Monumenta Serbica). In 
the thirteenth century the Pocid held high offices 
at the courts of the Serbian Emperors. The Italian 
form of the name, Pozza, with its Latin translation 
Puteis, dates from the Renaissance. This phenomenon 
was commonly met with all over Europe, but especi- 
ally on the Adriatic coast, where contact with the 
Latin world was most lively. The Italianization of 
the name notwithstanding, the House of Pozza was 
up to the time of its extinction (in 1908) representa- 
tive of the truest Slav sentiment, and devoted its 
best efforts to the energetic propaganda of that 
national principle which the Pozza rightly considered 
a vital matter for the people of Dalmatia. 

An elder brother, Nicolo, and a cousin Raffaele 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

played conspicuous parts in the political life of 
Dalmatia. 

The former, a man of high principle and excep- 
tional culture, held, as Slav Deputy, the office of 
First Vice-President of the Dalmatian Diet (at 
the time when the Italian Autonomist party was 
in the majority), and pleaded the cause of the Dalmato- 
Croatian union before the Emperor. The younger 
brother, Orsato, was a born poet, the last great 
Ragusan poet, the spiritual son of the Gundulic 
and Gjorgic. He spent a great part of his life in 
Italy, was at one time Chamberlain to the son of 
the Duke of Parma (1844-1848), and tutor to Prince 
Milan of Serbia (1869-1872) after the assassination 
of Prince Michael ; and both as politician and 
author he bequeathed lasting fame to the Serbo- 
Croat nation. While at Lucca he wrote his Italian 
poems (Talijanke, 1844), and in Ravenna, beside 
Dc ite's tomb, he composed his sonnets, which 
earned the high praise of Tommaseo. In these he 
questions the poet upon the future of the Slav 
I oples (1848), and hails him as the inspirer of our 
Awp'rening. It was also in Lucca that he composed 
his poem " Karadjurdjevka " (1848-1849), in which 
he celebrates the glorious exploits of Karageorge 
and proclaims the advent of National Union under 
the star of Serbia. He formed a close and faithful 
friendship with Professor de Rubertis, a native of 
the Slav colony in Italy, who published an Italian 
version of Pozza's poems and devoted himself to 
spreading a knowledge of Serbian poetry and Serbian 
aspirations in Italy. 

The journey to Italy of Ian Kolar, the father of 
the Czech Resurrection, greatly influenced our 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

academic youth in Padua. It is safe to say that the 
meeting of Kolar with the Ragusan Pozza and 
Felice Schiavone of Zara (a descendant of Andrea), 
in Venice in 1841, was an historic event for Dalmatia. 
The young Ragusan was filled with enthusiasm by 
this personal meeting with the great Slav patriot. 
And from Padua he wrote, when forwarding a few 
of his Serbian poems to Kolar (24th December, 1841) : 

"I do not aspire to poetic laurels, but I believe that the 
literary education of a people is a powerful means for bringing 
it to that glorious condition which renders it worthy of 
liberty. And this is the motive that prompts me to forward 
you a few of my poems for publication in your Slav periodical." 

And the Ragusan noble signed his name as " Orsato 
Pocic, Illyro-Slav of Ragusa." 

Besides Pozza, Kolar also became acquainted in 
Venice with Spiridion Dimitrovic, a Slavo-Dalmatian 
of Cattaro, with Antonio Kaznacic of Ragusa and 
Felice Schiavone of Zara, who said to Kolar : 

"I do not know the Slav language very well, but it gives 
me profound satisfaction to see the re-awakening of the 
Slavs and of their language. 

" By diligently reading Slav books I am endeavouring to 
make good the gaps in my education, which are the work 
of fate. I do not only feel that I am of Slav origin, but I 
am proud of belonging to the heroic Slavo-Dalmatian stock." 

Kolar mentions in his Italian Journey that every 
year some fifty Slavs (Illyrians, Czechs and Poles) 
frequented the University of Padua. He encouraged 
the students to found a Slav library and a Slav 
reading-room. Several Fiuman Slavs in Padua 
conceived the idea of founding a Slav reading-room 
in their native town. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

A Fiuman student in Padua, Joseph Zavrsnik, 
was the author of a Serbo-Croatian grammar. 

The Dalmatian and Slav students in Padua and 
Venice took a lively interest in the literary move- 
ment in Zagreb. They contributed to the journal 
Danica Mr ska (the Illyrian Morning Star), praised 
by Mazzini and Tommaseo, and created a centre 
of Slav social life on Italian soil. 

For Easter Day in 1843, the Slav colony in Venice 
organized a great national ball, and proposed that 
the national " Kolo " should on this occasion be 
danced by no less than fifty couples. Jo van Kukul- 
jevic and Petar Preradovic, the celebrated poet, 
with Spiridion Dimitrovic, travelled to Venice and 
encouraged their kinsmen to cultivate their native 
language and literature. A Slav lady from Trieste, 
Sofia Rusnov, wrote in Kolar's album : " My pen 
cannot express my joy at having met the poet of 
' Slavy Dcery,' the teacher of Slav Solidarity." 

In 1843 Pozza became Slav correspondent in Padua 
to the Danica Mr ska. From MSS. which he looked 
up in the Patriarchal Seminary of Venice he derived 
patriotic arguments and studies, all tending to 
the renown of the Slav race. 

In a letter to Kukuljevic he gave full rein to his 
feelings as a Ragusan and as a Dalmatian : 

" It is the duty of every patriot on foreign soil " — he wrote 
from Padua — " to make diligent researches concerning his 
nation and to publish them. 

" You have set us a splendid example in your travels, 
and now I am trying to follow in your footsteps. 

" I have lived for many years in Italy in the pursuit of 
study, and I cannot describe my joy when in visiting in 
Venice the stupendous monuments of this compendious 

145 K 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

city, those palaces, those churches, those academies and 
libraries, I came with every step upon memories of our fore- 
fathers—the Riva dei Schiavoni, the Glagolitic Church of 
St. George, the Calle and Ponte dei Ragusei, the canvases 
by Andrea Schiavone, etc. But it is not this which prompts 
me to write to you. 

" The public is not interested in the impression which I 
bear awaj^ in my soul, nor have I the intention of writing 
on these lines. The fruit of my pilgrimage is something 
far more important, it is the discovery of this Serbian MS." 

In a letter from Padua, dated 3rd August, 1843, 
Pozza writes : 

" We Dalmatians and Ragusans, far from our own country, 
thrown here into Italy like a colony, being desirous of a little 
comfort and encouragement for our patriotic souls, await 
with supreme anxiety any good news from our mother- 
country, and our hearts beat, at one moment with joy and 
in the next with trepidation, because of the messages which 
reach us from the other side. Thus we have with intense 
and general rejoicings acclaimed the news that Mr. Kuzmanic 
intends to found a Slav paper in Dalmatia, and we cried with 
one accord : ' Behold, Slavism has acquired a new partner, 
and our frontier march has taken the path to glory ! ' 

Pozza signed this letter " In the name of the 
Jugoslav youth of the University of Padua." 

Under the heading " Some Dalmatians in Padua," 
a proclamation was likewise issued at this time, 
inviting the Dalmatians to adopt the new Latin 
spelling as proposed by the Croats of Zagreb. 

" We have had many enemies, many sorrows ! To-day 
it seems that all that is finished ! Let us bury our civil 
dissensions ; union alone can save and regenerate us. . . . 
Wherefore we beg the editor of the Zora Dalmatinska and 
his collaborators to pave the way towards national union 
by the adoption of the Croatian spelling. We tender our 
loving thanks to our brothers of Croatia for their ceaseless 

146 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

labours for brotherly union. Our brothers ascribe to us 
the honour of having laid the foundations of the national 
edifice ; we gladly recognize that it was they who were the 
first builders. The foundations were the glory of our fore- 
fathers ; the building is the glory of our brothers ! " 

In another article written in 1844, Pozza wrote : 

" We desire our literature to be independent of all others ; 
that it should be truly national, that it should be as far 
removed from Walter Scott, Victor Hugo and Byron as 
from Virgil, Milton and Tasso ; we desire that even as the 
Slav race possesses special character and features, so should 
its literature possess special character and features. On 
this foundation we propose to rear a temple to the Slav 
Vilas." 

In his preface to the poems Tudjinke (Songs 
of an Exile), published in Zagreb in 1849, Pozza 
writes that he wrote this whole collection of poems 
in Italy between 1846 and 1848, in the gilded halls 
of the Prince of Lucca, amid luxuriously spread 
tables, horse-races, the sound of cymbals and the 
sparkle of champagne and " I hope " — he writes — 
" that even as I, amid all these splendours did not 
forget my people, so they will also not forget me. 
If Slavia remembers her greatness, we shall meet 
again, if not, farewell, my country, and for ever ! " 
Pozza translated many of Leopardi's verses into 
Serbian. In the patriotic grief of the sage of Recanati 
he beheld his own, and the apostrophe to Italy — 

" A che pugna in quei campi 
L'itala gioventude ? O numi, o numi 
Pugnan per altra terra itali acciari — ,: * 

1 "Why do upon these fields 

Fight Italy's young men ? Ye gods, ye gods ! 
For other lands fights the Italian steel — " 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

renewed more poignantly his own grief in beholding 
the Croat and Slovene battalions fighting in Italy 
in a cause foreign to the national one. 1 In several 
of his writings Pozza advocated the foundation of 
a Slav Chair in Italy, " so that the latter should 
become more fully acquainted with the spirit of her 
neighbours beyond the Isonzo and the Adriatic." 
G. De Rubertis remarks in his monograph on Pozza, 
that a similar proposal was made by a deputy in 
the Cisalpine Parliament, and that the poet Prati 
supported it. In vain ! The writer of these pages 
took up the idea again in 1896 and 1899, and for- 
warded a memorandum on the subject to The Hon. 
Bacelli through Signor Macola, but Italy refused to 
recognize what France had understood perfectly 
already in the 'thirties. 3 

This was in its main outlines — as far as the object 
of this work is concerned and (owing to the present 
isolation of my country) the sources at my disposal 
permit me to go into it — the contribution of our 
Paduan youth, to the national movement prior to 
the 'sixties.' 

1 In the Triestine journal La Favilla, edited by Francesco dall' 
Ongaro, Orsato Pozza and Antonio Kaznacic fought the first 
journalistic battles. In 1842 they published six articles: (i) History 
of the Slavs; (2) The Slav Alphabet; (3) History and Poetry; 
( 4) A Serbian National Ballad ; (5) National Ballads ; (6) The 
Kraljodvorski MS. In 1843 : National Proverbs, Ethnography 
and statistics of the Slav population in 1842. On this celebrated 
paper see Angelo Vivante, Irredentismo Adriatico. Firenze, 1912. 

a In 1848 Tommaseo, then Minister for Public Instruction of 
the Venetian Republic, decreed the establishment of a Chair of 
Serbian in Venice, convinced that this was in Italy's interest. The 
holder nominated by him was Vincenzo Marinelli. Later on he 
said with bitter irony : " The Slav languages, which have their 
professors in Germany and France, will not have any in Italy for 
centuries to come." — Dizionario Estetico, ii. 406. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Young Dalmatia had obeyed Tommaseo's com- 
mand : "Be Illyrians." 

The war waged in 1848 by the Croats and Serbs 
against the invading tide of Magyarism organized 
and headed by the Slovak renegade Kossuth, was 
the consummation of Illyrism, written in blood. 

We are far from desiring to recapitulate, except 
in its main points, the history of this renowned 
Slavo-Turanic conflict, which Erdodi, Ban of Croatia, 
invested with a bold legality by the Latin motto : 
Regnum Regno non prcescribit leges. I will merely 
confine myself to stating that the Zagreb and Padua 
movements, and the appeals ringing throughout the 
territory from the Drave and Danube to the Adriatic 
could not result in aught but blood, whereby alone 
nations are welded in one ; first in Zagreb itself, 
when in 1845 a popular riot was stifled in blood by 
the unpopular Ban Haller ; and then upon the 
fields of Hungary and beneath the walls of Vienna, 
after Ban Jelacid had crossed the Drave with his 
Croats to dispel the Turanic dream of a Hungary 
from henceforth divorced from the world of civiliza- 
tion and drifting towards an abyss of race hatred 
and hegemony of the Asiatic type. 

Agonized and bewildered amid the universal 
despotism in Europe, Croatian national sentiment, 
exasperated by the incipient Magyar tyranny, had 
rallied round the throne of Habsburg. There was 
no other way out. The historical inevitableness 
of it is more than obvious. For one last time the 
Empire exploited for its own ends the mediaeval 
principle proclaimed by Dante. In turning to the 
Emperor the people believed it was turning to a 
protector, and going to find a peaceful haven for its 

149 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

national aspirations. For one last time the Empire 
was looked up to as an impartial arbitrator, as a 
cloak like the cloaks of the Madonnas of Siena 
and Florence, which envelop the devotees of both 
sexes, who thus worship together beneath a veil 
embroidered with golden stars. The struggle against 
the Magyars affords an excellent lesson even for the 
present day. It teaches that true Liberalism does 
not exist where the obliteration of a nation, the thral- 
dom of a people, an attack upon the principle of 
nationality, that fulcrum of all life, the foundation 
and raison d'etre of all liberty, are being contemplated. 

What interest had the Croats, the Serbs and the 
Roumanians in the struggle of " liberal " Hungary 
against the " despotism of the House of Austria," 
when liberal Hungary cynically proposed to attack, 
and effectively did attack the national soul of the 
peoples which had entrusted themselves to her as 
partners and confederates and not as slaves and 
lands for colonization ? With a correct apprecia- 
tion of the elements of the life and progress of a 
people, Croatia took the lead in a movement which 
we meet with again, under a different and more 
decisive form in 1868 and 1914. The cry that went 
up from Jelacic's battalions was " Nationality first, 
our mother-tongue first, the soul of the people first, 
and afterwards liberty which, to be lasting and genuine, 
cannot grow except from a national trunk, enforced, 
not granted ! " And that Croatia had taken the 
right road is proved by the fraternal action of the 
other disjointed parts of the nation, all of which 
followed her lead against Hungarian tyranny. 

Slavonia, Syrmium and the Serbs in Hungary 
revolted. Dalmatia was all a-quiver with war- 

150 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

like excitement. A few members of the Ragusan 
patriciate, moved by hatred of Austria (who had 
occupied Ragusa by treachery in 1814) and inspired 
by the immortal principles of '89, of which they 
believed the Hungarians to be the champions, joined 
the ranks of Kossuth's fighters ; but the Dalmatian 
people hailed with indescribable joy the appoint- 
ment of Jelacic as Ban of Dalmatia. Many Dalmatian 
volunteers enrolled themselves under the Serbo- 
Croat banners and a whole literature in prose and 
verse sprang up from Zara to Cattaro predicting the 
triumph of the bold Croat leader. Prince Alexander 
Karageorgevic, father of the present King Petar, 
Serbia's ruler after the expulsion of Milos Obrenovic, 
sent Jelacic the pick of his officers. Prince Peter 
II of Montenegro — one of the greatest of the Serbian 
poets — wrote to Jelacic\ offering his own arm and 
his Montenegrins for the war of liberation and 
urging the Ban to place himself at the head of a 
Jugoslavia and have done for ever with the Magyars. 

Finally, encouragement came from Bosnia, gagged 
and sucked dry by the insatiable Pashas of Constan- 
tinople. Young Bosnians crossed the Save by 
night to join their Croat and Serb brothers for the 
supreme defence of the language and the race. Such 
were the years of the '48 and '49, the logical consum- 
mation of the Illyrian movement, the first ray of 
union between the brothers of the one mother 
Jugoslavia, a union symbolized by the solemn 
investiture of the Catholic Ban Jelacic in Zagreb 
by the hand of the Serbo-Orthodox Patriarch Rajacic. 

Italy, disunited and in great part still the slave 
of the Austrian over-lord, witnessed this revolt in 
arms of the Slav people as a friend, and understood 

151 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Illyrian movement and gave it all her attention 
in spite of the pains of her own tragic birth-throes. 

She understood what to-day the united and resur- 
rected Italy of 1916 has difficulty in understanding. 
To-day she even stands amazed at a movement 
which appears to her to have arisen within the ill- 
defined borders of a little-known and treacherous 
land. As though the present movement were some- 
thing new, artificial, without precedent — a dark 
conspiracy doomed to disappear into the limbo of 
fantastic creations with the Kingdoms of Etruria 
and Westphalia ! But the Italians of those days 
understood, and Mamiani wrote to Minghetti that 
if the Sardinian Government were to send envoys 
to Croatia " to establish good relations of neighbour- 
liness and friendship," Pius IX would furnish the 
personage dispatched on such a mission by Charles 
Albert with credentials. 1 

Tommaseo swayed before the hurricane. Between 
his anti-Austrian and liberal instinct and his all- 
pervading sense of justice and the love he bore the 
Slav world emerged at last from the shadows and 
set upon the road to a greater future, he halted, and 
at one moment took the part of the Croats and in 
another that of those who had inscribed upon their 
shields the great lie of a war against Austria coupled 
with the oppression of the peoples in their own 
house. " Truly " — he wrote in 1850 — " the Magyars 
have for a long time been incredibly tyrannical to 
the Croats. 2 Although I realize the errors of the 
Hungarians, it grieves me to see the Slavs out of 
revenge (sic !) turning themselves into slave-drivers 

1 Tommasfeo, ii. p. 665, No. 2. 

2 Secondo Esilio, i. p. 66. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUCxOSLAV MOVEMENT 

for Austria ; and I fairly predict that they will 
receive no mercy from Austria." 1 

But in his famous memorandum addressed in 
1854 to Mr. Ward, British Commissioner for the 
Ionian Isles, he inveighs with prophetic insight 
against Hungarian hypocrisy, identical with that 
of to-day. 

" The Magyars could in '48 have won a great triumph 
and great honour for themselves and great advantage for 
the Slavs, had they divested themselves of the old tyrannical 
pride and hatred which make them hated by the Slavs, by 
promising the latter respect for their language and the 
institutions of civil equality. 

"It is safe to maintain that Hungary by herself cannot 
have the importance which she loves to ascribe to herself." * 

But the exceptionally clear mind of the Count 
of Cavour understood the Slav movement of '48 
far better. Uncontaminated by the fumes of Ger- 
manism or the doctrines which at that juncture began 
to be propagated from Frankfort ; disdainful of 
the gospel of prey under the cloak of liberalism, 
with the smile of the well-balanced mind of a Latin 
and a Liberal, he spoke at a sitting of the Cisalpine 
Parliament on 20th October, 1848, upon the Slav 
movement and more especially upon the Croato- 
Hungarian War. More than ever in these days 
it should be remembered to the undying honour of 
Italy's genius that, still smarting from the wounds 
resulting from unequal yoking, she moved serene 
and free in the loftiest spheres of political speculations, 
without ever losing her hold upon the terra firma of 
profound reality. 

1 Secondo Esilio, p. 64. 2 Ibid, pp. 303-304. 

153 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

" There dwells," said Cavour, " in the lands of the Empire 
a numerous race, energetic and intrepid, but oppressed for 
many centuries — the Slav race. This race is spread through- 
out the eastern part of the Empire, from the shores Of the 
Danube to the mountains of Bosnia ; it desires to obtain 
its full emancipation, to win back its nationality. Its cause 
is just and noble. It is being championed by masses as yet 
rude, but full of hardihood and energy ; thence it is fated 
to triumph in the distant future. 

" The great Slav movement has inspired the premier poet 
of the century, Adam Mieczkiewicz, and by this fact alone we 
are led to place full faith in the future of these peoples. 
Because we are taught by history that when Providence 
inspires men of the sublime genius of a Homer, Dante, 
Shakespeare or Mieczkiewicz, it is a proof that the 
peoples in whose midst they arose are called to a high 
destiny. 

" Be that as it may, shortly after the triumph of the 
liberal cause in Vienna the Slav movement began to manifest 
itself openly in the Empire. The most intelligent branch of 
the Slav family, the inhabitants of Bohemia, have tried since 
April to shake off the German supremacy, and to found a 
centre in Prague around which all Slavism might rally and 
come in touch. 

" This generous enterprise failed. All parties in Vienna 
united to repress the movement in Bohemia. The unhappy 
city of Prague attempted an appeal to force ; but it was 
beaten after a desperate resistance, bombarded and raked 
with machine-guns. It was placed under martial law, which 
was in full force only a few days ago. 

" The Slav movement, crushed by brute force in the north 
of the Empire, has developed more vigorously, more menac- 
ingly, more powerfully in the south, in the Danubian provinces 
inhabited by the Slavo-Croats. 

" I will not here go into the causes or the pretexts that 
have provoked the Croatian rising against Hungary. I am 
not going to delve into the details of the great conflict raging 
between the Magyars and the Slavs. I will only remind the 
Chamber that the Magyars, so noble and generous when it 
was a case of defending the rights of their own nation against 
Imperial tyranny, have always shown themselves haughty 

154 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tyrannical and overbearing towards the Slav race scattered 
throughout the provinces of Hungary." 

" Valeric That is not correct ! " 

" Cavour. Yes, gentlemen, no one can deny that in 
Hungary the aristocracy belongs to the Magyar race, and the 
people to the Slav, and that in that kingdom, the aristocracy 
has always oppressed the people." 

" Be that as it may, I do not intend to make an apologia 
for the Croats (laughter), and still less for their intrepid 
leader, Ban Jelacic. / will confine myself to stating that the 
standard they have raised is the Slav standard, and not at all, 
as others suppose, the standard of reaction and despotism. 

" Jelacid has availed himself of the name of the Emperor, 
and in this he has shown himself a prudent politician. But 
this does not prove that his principle, and indeed his only 
aim, is not the restoration of the Slav nationality. And 
what, in effect, is the Imperial power ? An empty semblance 
behind which the parties which divide the Empire shelter 
themselves in turn. Jelacic, seeing the Emperor at variance 
with the Viennese, declared himself for the Central Power, 
but certainly not for the reconstruction of the Gothic edifice 
which was overthrown by the March revolution. 

" In order to prove that Jelacic is not a mere military 
reactionary it suffices to remark that upon his approaching 
Vienna, the Slav deputies, notably those from Bohemia, 
who represent the enlightened element in the Slav world, 
quitted the Assembly with the intention of withdrawing to 
Prague or Bruenn to form a Slav Parliament there. 

" I therefore believe that the conflict which is now raging 
in the heart of Austria is not so much a political struggle 
like that in March, but rather the prelude to a terrific race 
war, to the war between the German world and the Slav." : 

" Surprising, wonderful " — as an English hand 
wrote upon the margin of another speech by Cavour, 

1 From the speech made at the meeting of 20th October, 1S48, 
in connection with the debate upon the policy of the Minister 
Pinelli and the opportunity for declaring war upon Austria.. — 
Discorsi parlamentari del Co. C. di Cavour, vol. i. Race, e pubbl. 
per ordine della Camera de Deputati, Torino, Eredi Botta, 1893. 

155 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

as we are told by the Hon. Ruffini, 1 and indeed this 
is the only adequate comment upon thoughts as 
these ! To the Italy of the Risorgimento therefore 
belongs the glory of having intuitively realized 
the events which are maturing to-day from the 
Baltic to the .ZEgean. After Machiavelli, after 
Guicciardini, after G. B. Vico, after all the host of 
the great Venetian diplomatists, Benso di Cavour 
— speaking in the middle of the nineteenth century 
and in the heyday of Absolutism — interpreted yet 
once again the broad and intuitive political ideal 
of the ancient Latin race, ere its wings were clipped 
and its horizon narrowed by the methods and ideas of 
German philosophers and parvenus. 

The war of 1848 did not realize the hopes that many 
had placed upon it. But the essential motive of the 
war, the parent thought which paradoxically caused 
the Slavs to appear the champions of Autocracy, 
and the Hungarian oppressors as the paladins of 
liberty, did not perish in the tide of Absolutism, 
which succeeded the great national upheaval. And 
in this speech of Cavour's it is necessary to sift 
out the essential meaning whereby in being true for 
1848, it cannot fail to be true also for 1916. Perhaps 
if the Autocrat Russia of Nicholas I had not helped 
to put down the Revolution, the Habsburg Monarchy 
would have risen above the crisis, and an era of 
despotism would not have fallen equally upon 
those who fought for a fictitious liberty and those 
who struggled for man's greatest possession, his 
mother-tongue. Be that as it may, let no one judge 
the reaction of 1850 by the standard of the present 
day, nor blame the Croats and their Slav brothers 

L'insegnamento di Cavour, p. 96. Milano, Flli. Treves, 1916. 
156 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

for having contributed, even though indirectly, to a 
recrudescence of Absolutism. To judge historical 
facts by consequences which the authors of the facts 
could not foresee at the time, or foreseeing could 
not have hindered, is equally unworthy of the mind 
of an historian and the standard of a true politician. 
In the same way we might reproach the nations for 
remaining thralls to the Holy Alliance after Waterloo 
and Leipzig ! And moreover it is not true that after 
the failure of the war of '48 the seed sown by Jelaclc 
failed to bear fruit in the Croatian and Dalmatian 
constitutional struggles of i860, just as it is not 
true to say that the cause of Italian unity did not 
reap great advantages from the disaster of Novara. 

Tommaseo, who could not accustom himself to 
the idea of help lent by the Croats to the perpetrators 
of the reaction, somewhat regained his equanimity 
in later years, on the eve of the great war of 1859. 
The great Dalmatian boldly entered the lists on the 
side of the Croats, and in a memorandum dictated 
in Corfu, which the Italians of to-day would do 
well to consider, he claimed for Croatia a considerable 
share in the national Jugoslav awakening. What 
is more, against Magyar and Austrian rights, he 
pits the ancient national rights of Croatia. 1 

As one of the greatest prophets of Illyrism and a 
Dalmatian, Tommaseo owed this vindication of 
the Jugoslav movement both to himself and to his 
life work. And not even the (sometimes) irate 
polemics of 1861-1862 were able to shake, let alone 
eradicate the profound race instinct which dictated it. 

1 See the memorandum in Appendix I. 



157 



CHAPTER III 

Absolutist regime in Austria and in Dalmatia — Dawn of Constitu- 
tionalism (1880) — Two parties in Dalmatia — Unionists and 
Autonomists — Electoral oligarchy of the Italian party — 
Tribute paid by all parties to the Slav character of Dalmatia 
— The Dalmatian Year Book — Declaration of the Dalmatian 
Autonomist party on the Slav character of Dalmatia — 
Bajamonti and his programme — His statements concerning 
the Slav character of Dalmatia (1864) — National movement 
in Zara — Foundation of II Nazionale and II Dalmata — 
Slav programme of the Autonomist paper II Dalmata (1866) 
— Slav tribute to Italian civilization in Dalmatia — The 
pamphlet A Vote for the Union — Programme of the Slav 
Unionist paper II Nazionale. 

All these fair hopes of a resurrection which would 
rival the Risorgimento, whose destiny was working 
itself out between the Alps and the sea, were smoth- 
ered beneath the funeral pall of the black and 
yellow banner. 

In the meantime, in Austria, Absolutism pure 
and simple was preceded by a Central Constitution 
imposed by octroy (Imperial decree) by Francis 
Joseph upon his peoples in the thick of the Hun- 
garian Revolution (4th March, 1849). But even 
this Constitution already represented merely Autoc- 
racy in disguise, by subjecting the historic individu- 
alities of the countries grouped around the House 
of Habsburg to the despotic will of the Central 
Power. A Parliament existed, to be sure, and 

158 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

provincial Diets ; but these assemblies were nothing 
but a screen to mask an iron Centralism of the 
German type. The Erb-monarchie — the accentua- 
tion of the hereditary principle plainly showed how 
much in the way of rights was to be conceded to 
the peoples ! — was in fact held in trust by a Central 
Viennese Ministry, to which the Ban of Croatia 
was likewise responsible. By this Constitution the 
lands inhabited by the Serbs of Hungary and Croatia 
were formed into the Serbian Vojvodina, and the 
title arising from this (wrongly confused nowadays 
with Serbia) was borne by the Emperor of Austria. 
Croatia and Slavonia, severed from Hungary, were 
to continue to be administered according to the 
laws of the land, but in the capacity of provinces 
(Kronlander) of the Austrian Empire. As for Dal- 
matia, the fact of its belonging to the two provinces 
of Croatia and Slavonia was expressly recognized 
in the new Constitution (Article 73). Nevertheless, 
the effective realization of the union was made 
dependent upon a preliminary agreement between 
the Dalmatian delegates and those of Croatia- 
Slavonia. Thus even Austrian Centralism bowed 
to the irresistible and eloquent force of ethnic 
currents. 

This Constitution of 1849, which in spite of its 
centralist spirit, foreshadowed after a fashion an 
evolution of Austria in the direction of a federalism 
sui generis — or, at least, of a grouping of the peoples 
without any interference on the part of Magyar 
particularism — probably appealed to Francis Joseph, 
because he hoped that the peoples would never 
demand full autonomy. In the meantime the Croats 
were not at all satisfied. It needed nothing less 

159 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

than all the authority which Jelacic" could bring 
to bear, to induce them to accept an " imposed " 
Constitution, which by a stroke of the pen abolished 
the right of the Croato-Serb people to dispose of 
itself as it had done at Cetingrad in 1527, although 
even then coerced by historic circumstances and 
surroundings. 

Jelacid felt himself overwhelmed and both physic- 
ally and morally weakened. He already foresaw 
the uselessness of his sacrifices, and before his intimate 
friends he showed signs of failing. The Jugoslav 
mission had been too strong for him. He could 
not make up his mind to break with a House whose 
mediation he had invoked in the national struggle 
with the Magyars. 

At this juncture Ban Jelacic received a letter 
from one of the leaders of the Croato-Illyrian move- 
ment, Ivan Kukuljevic, whom we know already 
from the days of the Illyrians and his friendly rela- 
tions with Tommaseo. This letter reflects — like 
limpid water — all that subconscious striving for 
union which, in spite of appearances, was going on 
irresistibly in the soul of the Jugoslav people. 

" If I did not know your patriotic and profoundly Slav soul 
— wrote the Croatian patriot to the Ban (9th August, 1849), 
I should not venture frankly to submit to you a faithful 
picture of the present disposition of Croatian people. I can 
assure you, that never since I have worked in the domain 
of literature and politics have I seen so much grief and dis- 
satisfaction in our people. It is not of the ignorant mass of 
the people that I want to speak. Fanaticism, enthusiasm 
or blindness can always incline the latter first to one side, 
then to the other. I am thinking rather of our men, both 
young and old who, from the earliest days of our national 
movement, in every crisis of our political life, have directed, 

160 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

instructed, consoled and inspired our popular masses. The 
imposition by decree of a new Constitution has profoundly 
dissatisfied the nation. Our people, which has in bygone 
centuries become used to discussing every law concerning its 
political life and its future in the bosom of its own national 
Assembly, now sees the destruction of its ancient liberty, for 
which it had spent a vast treasure of physical, material 
and moral energy. If our nation accepts to-day, by an illegal 
course, a law or rescript promulgated in its interest and for 
its good, who will guarantee that it will not be compelled 
to-morrow to accept a law pernicious and fatal to its existence ? 
" But when we begin to examine this Constitution in its 
details we perceive that it is founded on principles foreign 
to the Slav nature, and that it is animated by the breath of 
Germanism. Moreover it suppresses the whole of our historic 
and political past. It forbids us for ever all striving towards 
our great Slavo-Oriental ideals. If we were to accept the 
principles of the Constitution imposed upon us, we should 
open our doors to the German thrust, to a foreign influence, 
to the oppression of our nation. We should cause the political 
abdication of our Sabor. 1 We should thereby renounce the 
ancient dignity of the Ban, which we have always looked upon 
as a vice-regal dignity. We should renounce all legitimate 
influence in Bosnia and Serbia, the idea of union with our 
Slav brothers in the Military Frontiers, in Dalmatia, Istria, 
Carniola, etc., who have sought union with us only because 
they saw in it their strength and their happiness. Under 
the future Lieutenant-Governor (Statthalter) , under a Diet 
stripped of its privileges, under the powerful influence of the 
foreign spirit, all liberty is necessarily bound to perish, all 
national aspirations must fade away. The thread that bound 
us to the past would be violently cut, and an insurmountable 
obstacle would arise upon the road down which, energetically, 
free and nationally, we had set out towards the future. Such 
are the painful thoughts of our patriots." » 

1 Diet. 

2 It will be noted that in this letter, which was inspired by the 
most profound instincts of the race, not the slightest allusion is 
made to any kind of dynastic loyalism, to any connection of Croatia 
with the " Erb-monarchie," and still less to a precedence of the 
interests of the Austrian State Community before the primary 

161 L 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The gloomy prognostications of the Croat politician 
were only too soon and too completely justified by 
events. The Hungarian Revolution (i.e. the at- 
tempt to set up Turanian Centralism) was quelled, 
to be replaced by German Centralism. The Consti- 
tution was abolished. Unqualified despotism im- 
posed itself upon the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy. 
Darkness lay heavy upon the minds of men and 
upon events. 

From Italy the watcher on the Alps looked " for 
the appearance of a friendly standard " ; but in 
Dalmatia hope and expectation were alike dead. 
Alas, beyond the mountains that same iron centralism 
and an all-powerful German officialdom was replacing 
the German signs at the street corners of Zagreb. 
In Bosnia, the silence of death. Russia was beaten 
by the Western Powers for the benefit of Austria 
and Prussia. The only Slav society in Zara, the 
" Matica Dalmatinska " was suppressed, and a 
second eclipse of the national idea lasting from 1850 
to i860 paved the way for the savage recovery of 
those bureaucratic elements which dishonoured the 
language of Mazzini and Gioberti to the detriment 
of the liberal principles of the future Slav Constitu- 
tional party. 

Italian, which was employed in speech and writing 

conditions of life and development for the Jugoslav nation. This 
fundamental trait of the Croat and Jugoslav historic and national 
outlook dominates the entire modern history of our race. All 
recantations and defections, all loyalist declarations of certain 
political groups, or rather of certain castes superposed upon the 
national structure, will not be able to detract from the profound 
significance of a steady and continuous thought that has moved 
onward throughout the centuries, and which we see condensed in 
this letter to which we would draw the attention of all sceptics 
and unbelievers. 

162 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

by all parties alike, became the natural vehicle of 
the Slav thought in these fresh struggles. So much 
so that a bureaucracy of Lombardo-Venetian type 
set about the defence of its privileged position in 
the language of liberty, and the Slav ranks, filled 
with the Italian revolutionary gospel, moved to the 
attack in the same tongue. 

The two rivals for the soul of Dalmatia stood thus 
in 1866, the fateful year in which Victor Emmanuel 
assumed the glorious crown of Italy, and the arch- 
cynic Francis Joseph granted the Constitution to 
his people with the same sovereign indifference 
with which he had crushed the risings of '48 and 
presented the Slavs — in recompense for their support 
— with the Bach Statutes. 

None of my readers will expect me to recapitu- 
late the history of those memorable parliamentary 
battles between the party for Dalmatian autonomy 
(Autonomists) and the National party, which stood 
for the union of Dalmatia with the sister provinces. 
This will be done in another place and in due time. 

Here I will limit myself to a most rapid survey 
of a struggle which was ennobled by the genius 
and high character of many eminent sons of Dal- 
matia in each of the opposing camps, and at times 
dishonoured by the employment of weapons borrowed 
from the arsenal of the common foe. 

On the one side, a local municipal policy, the 
ideal of an uneventful existence of a Dalmatia 
gently lulled in an anachronistic Venetianism, and 
urged to spend her days towed in the wake of the 
great ship Austria in accordance with the Treaty 
of Campo Formio. In the opposite camp, Unionism, 
on whose banner appeared Mazzini's motto : " You 

163 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

cannot build upon a negation " ; a party which 
desired the rebirth of Dalmatia, with all her ancient 
rights, in a greater Jugoslav unit, more in keeping 
with her aspirations and advantage. 

On the one side we find ranged beside the idealistic 
supporters of Dalmatian autonomy the riff-raff of 
Austrian officialdom, whom an autonomous Dal- 
matia (i.e. a Dalmatia with the civil status of an 
Austrian province pure and simple), an oligarchy 
of salaried officials, would have suited down to the 
ground. In the other camp, the party of Progress 
and Nationalism, in which burghers and aristocrats, 
clericals and liberals, rallied to give battle to the 
Austrian bureaucratic idea in the name of the 
National Principle, to claim for the mass of the 
people the right to breathe more freely and to 
dispose of its own destiny. 

Between these two principles of State omnipotence 
and the national principle, the status quo and the 
Revolution, fate so willed it that Niccolo Tommaseo 
broke sundry lances in the cause of his ideal — the 
ideal of municipal autonomy cum federation — and 
that the great Dalmatian thus unwittingly furnished 
the bureaucratic party with weapons against the 
National (Jugoslav) party, whereas in reality he was 
with all his soul and all his anti-sectarian mind 
fighting invisibly in the ranks of the party of Unity. 

Cruel irony of history ! The author of the Iskrice 
quoted by those who would inaugurate a bitter 
campaign against the very tongue in which the 
Iskrice were penned, the language set on high by 
the great Dalmatian like a beacon upon the crest 
of the hill, or rather like some intangible divinity ! 

Unless, perhaps, we are to find posthumous conso- 
164 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

lation in that struggle, which ended with the triumph 
of the national will demonstrated in a long series 
of crushing electoral victories. 

A triumph curtailed in its practical application 
by the Austrian enemy, who was already on the 
road to his present suicide, but a triumph inasmuch 
as on the eve of the world struggle, Dalmatia had, 
as a whole (with the exception of a very few isolated 
centres), entered, spiritually and for good, into the 
bosom of the great Slav union. The consolation 
to which we refer consists in this, that in virtue of 
that law of nature which we formulated just now, 
there has been throughout Dalmatia since the 
beginning of the great struggle, not as between 
Italians and Slavs, but as between Autonomists 
and Unionists, a plebiscite unanimously in favour 
of the Slav character of the province. So that only 
by a deliberate falsification of history it is possible 
to make the assertion (which is demolished by facts) 
that the struggle has hitherto been in the nature 
of a defensive struggle on the part of an Italian and 
directly indigenous element against a propaganda 
among a denationalized populace, unconscious of 
its Slav individuality, the blind instrument of the 
treacherous wiles of Vienna. 

As a matter of fact, the Dalmatian people, i.e. 
the great agricultural majority in the country, had 
not even been consulted in the opening stages of 
the fight. 

The 15,672 Dalmatians which figured in the 
statistics of i860 (compiled in the heyday of the 
Italianizing days of Austrian bureaucracy) as " habitu- 
ally speaking Italian" were represented in the Dal- 
matian Diet of 1861 by twenty-six deputies, while 

165 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the 140,000 " of Slav speech " — to quote the cynical 
expression of a Dalmatian exile — were only repre- 
sented by fifteen deputies. Thence the marvel was 
this : that the twenty-six deputies representing an 
infinitesimal minority among the Dalmatian people 
should vie with the fifteen representatives of the 
overwhelming majority in asserting the Slav character 
of Dalmatia ! For this was the doctrine of party 
formerly called the Autonomist and now the Italian 
ever since 1876. 

The Annuario Dalmatico (Dalmatian Year-book), 
edited by N. Tommaseo, Giuseppe Ferrari-Cupilli, 
and other eminent representatives of the Dalmatian 
educated classes of both parties, wrote in 1861 : 

" There is not, and cannot be, any nationality in Dalmatia 
beside the Slav, or properly speaking, the Serbo-Croat. Some 
Dalmatians mistakenly consider themselves Italian ; they 
are not Italians except as regards their culture. . . . We 
do not owe everything to Italy, only much. 

" Civilization is a great possession which we give up only 
with our lives. To demand of the cultured Dalmatians that 
they should give up the treasure of Italian civilization garnered 
during the course of so many centuries and throw it into the 
bottom of their sea would be madness, in so far as it was 
not wickedness. 

" Rather should this treasure be ever increased, only put 
to a different use. . . . While still preserving its own indi- 
vidual originality a nation may certainly, without taking 
harm, absorb all that may help to develop and perfect its 
individuality. Carniola, Croatia and even modern Serbia 
are destined to assimilate Germanic elements into our per- 
sonality ; to assimilate the Latin is part of Dalmatia's 
destiny. And to that end she must be Slav in everything 
and for everything. 

" It was not the Greeks who in becoming rdtnanized, en- 
grafted certain elements of their own civilization upon the 
Latin people, but the Romans themselves, by adopting 

166 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

these elements, it is true, while nevertheless still remaining 
Romans. Even so the Dalmatians, simply by being and 
keeping themselves Slav in mind and soul, will be able to 
fulfil the noblest mission imposed upon them by nature. 
... It is only natural that the powerful attraction of an 
advanced civilization should have dazzled the eyes and 
fascinated the virgin minds of many Dalmatians and carried 
away their hearts in a quiver of irresistible sympathy ; but 
this gives us no right to believe that they, forgetful of their 
brothers solely because they were poor and uncultured, 
desired to betray the latter. 

" The idea of Italianizing Dalmatia, even though owing 
to circumstances it at one time had partisans, cannot have 
any to-day, at the present time. Such an idea would no 
longer be foolishness, but a crime ! " 

These plain words were followed by others plainer 
still. A general paean was raised to the Slav character 
of the province, called upon at last and for the first 
time in her history of a thousand years, to attest 
before civilized Europe her faith and civilized status. 
Even the opposers of any kind of alteration in the 
status quo were not less energetic or less explicit 
in proclaiming that the political question of Dal- 
matia's fate in the future order of the Habsburg 
Monarchy neither could nor ought in any way 
to involve a question prejudicial to the ethnical 
character of the country, a character which would 
have to remain outside of and above all contention. 

In his opening speech of the session of 1863 (12th 
January) Cav. Petrovic, the President of the Diet, 1 
made the following declaration : 

" The Slavo-Dalmatian language, gentlemen, so-called by 
the decision of the Diet, which is almost identical with the 

1 The Emperor used to appoint the Presidents of the Diets of 
the Kingdoms and Crown-lands represented in the Reichsrat from 

167 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

literary language of the Serbs and the Croats, has too well- 
assured a future to stand in need of being diffused by violent 
measures. Nothing can help it better in its progress than 
the dissemination of useful books which will render, in this 
language, the ideas of European civilization. 

" The Italian language in Dalmatia is a beneficent guest, 
and ought not to be ejected like an importunate parasite." 

But this very President had been even more 
explicit in the session of 1861— the first under the 
Constitutional era — when a violent commotion arose 
in the Diet because Deputy Pavlinovic dared to 
speak in Slav. The President found himself obliged 
to intervene and call the Majority to order with 
these words : 

" Gentlemen Deputies, it would be folly to contend that 
from the Dinaric Alps to the remotest of our islands, our 
country and its inhabitants are anything but Slav." J 

We will not stop to consider the declarations made 
by Count Francesco Borelli in the Vienna Parliament 
(the Austrian Reichsrat), in which, although refusing 
to endorse the programme of the National party, 
he nevertheless demanded the union of Dalmatia 
with its sister provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

among the Majority, and the Vice-Presidents from the Minority. 
Until 1870, as we shall see, the Majority in the Dalmatian Diet 
was Autonomist. Cav. Petrovic was an advocate of Zara, an 
Italianist Orthodox Serb, highly respected for his impartiality by 
all factions in the Assembly. 

1 It is only just to remark that the commotion evoked in the 
Majority was not shared by the Liberal deputies, such as Dr. 
Filippi and Bajamonti, but was started from the benches where 
sat the Austrian officials who stood for an Autonomist programme, 
against whom Bajamonti found himself obliged to wage a struggle 
as honourable as it was — unhappily — fruitless, on account of his 
defection from the Liberal camp in 1886. 

168 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

which were then still groaning under the Turkish 
yoke. 1 

For the rest, all sensible people in Italy have always 
looked upon the fates of Dalmatia and Bosnia as 
being indissolubly linked. Let us merely quote 
Baron Sonnino — the late Italian Minister for 
Foreign Affairs — who, commenting in the Rassegna 
Settimanale, edited by him in Florence, upon the 
Magyaro-German opposition to the conquest of 
Bosnia-Herzegovina, remarked in 1878 (vol. i. No. 6, 
p. 86) that the Viennese Government, by having 
renounced the conquest of Bosnia-Herzegovina, had 
sacrificed " the interests of its Dalmatian provinces, 
whose commerce is languishing in consequence of 
their being cut off from the land which ought to be 
the natural source of supply for their trade." 

Unfortunately, Austria effected the annexation 
at much later date, in odium Slavorum, and with 
the intention of governing the Jugoslav lands 
separately, inciting them one against the other 
and exploiting the animosities of centuries between 
them, while the Southern Slavs had hoped by the 
annexation of the former Turkish provinces to hasten 
their unification and emancipation from Germano- 
Magyar tutelage. It was this tragical divergency 
of purpose which caused the Serbo-Austrian conflict 
to enter upon an acute stage, and indeed it was 
certainly the ultimate cause of the present war. 

Nor will we linger over that other declaration 

1 Already before him, Tommaseo had indicated the union of 
Dalmatia with Bosnia-Herzegovina as its natural hinterland as 
" the national and economic consolidation of the Dalmatian coast " 
— a union which in his opinion as in that of all Serbo-Croats, would 
have constituted a stage on the way towards the consummation 
of complete unification. 

169 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

made by Mr. Serragli in the sitting of 28th March, 
1863, when he proposed that the Serbo-Croatian 
language should be called "our language," in contrast 
to the Italian, nor will we more than refer to the 
statements by Governor Mamula, the ally and pro- 
tector of the Autonomist party, who declared in 
his opening speech on 28th September, 1864 : 
" Dalmatia is a Slav land, and to doubt it is foolish- 
ness." We will rather devote a little more time to 
two other irrefragable testimonies which no casuistry 
and no rhetorical artifice can dispose of or minimize 
in their spontaneous and profound significance. 

Quite recently we have heard quoted the testi- 
mony of Bajamonti, the famous mayor, or rather 
autocrat, of Spalato from i860 to 1882, one of the 
most notable men of last century in Dalmatian 
memory. May we be permitted simply to quote 
Bajamonti's testimony in favour of our brief 
summary. Bajamonti is a man who to-day, more than 
a generation after his downfall and death, cannot 
fail to arouse a feeling of sympathetic respect in 
every noble mind, susceptible to the voice of justice 
and liberty, and that in spite of the mistakes and 
undeniable weaknesses of his life. What we have 
just said will not be cavilled at as posthumous adula- 
tion on the part of one who is the son of the most 
stubborn and most chivalrous of his adversaries, 
whose house was often the target of the cobble- 
stones and shot-guns of the mob of Spalato, provoked 
by obscure firebrands whom Bajamonti, although 
ma3'or of the city, could not, we will not say would 
not, restrain. 

A complex and singular nature, Bajamonti stands 
out dramatically against the background of Dalmatian 

170 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and Spalatan history. Gifted with unusual qualities, 
brilliant, generous, eloquent, highly cultured, honest, 
enterprising and accessible to the point of temerity 
to every modern trend, sensitive to every indication 
of public opinion, Bajamonti was an outstanding 
personality, who cannot be quoted by the Autonomist- 
Italian party as their representative man. In the 
first phase of his striking career he not only stood 
for the sole idea of liberalism and tolerance, but 
for Autonomy independent of Austrian officialdom. 
This idea might with the active support of the 
principal Slav leaders have developed into that 
broader Nationalism which Tommaseo foresaw, into 
a perfect understanding between Italian and Slav 
culture, between the rights of the people and respect 
for a venerable tradition. 

Bajamonti grasped all this intuitively, but it was 
grasped equally by the enemies of an Italo-Slav under- 
standing. The latter, led by the sinister Lapenna, 
Imperial and Royal official, savagely attacked him, 
and ended by capturing him for the barren idea 
of an Italian-Austrian Autonomy. 

Bajamonti was the regenerator of Spalato, the 
man who did more for the illustrious little city than 
any man since Diocletian. He had a fervent faith 
in the future of Spalato. He put up the first large 
modern building, introduced gas, founded the 
Dalmatian Association for the erection of notable 
buildings, reconstructed the harbour of Spalato 
and built the dykes. He opened up many of the 
slums, laid out new streets, built a magnificent 
theatre (burnt down in 1886) — which rivalled the 
Fenice of Venice. He restored churches and con- 
ceived the grandiose idea, which he put into execution 

171 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

towards the end of his administration, of restoring 
the aqueduct of Diocletian. Upon this enterprise 
rested his great popularity with the upper classes 
of the city, while the populace absolutely worshipped 
him. The common people of Spalato, who are 
purely Slav (Croat) and cannot speak Italian at all, 
called him " father " (Caca), and many families 
asked him to stand godfather to their children 
or to act as guardian or trustee for their in- 
terests. 

A man of this stamp ought naturally to have 
been drawn to the young and vigorous Slav National 
party, with whom he had in common his Liberal 
principles and an invincible aversion to Austrian 
officialdom. 

This union did indeed take place, but it was of 
short duration. And this was a serious misfortune 
for Dalmatia, which suffered greatly by this breach 
between Bajamonti and the National party. There 
were many causes for this division. 

First the guileful machinations of the Autonomist 
Government party which, taking advantage of 
Bajamonti's financial mistakes, dragged him into 
its orbit ; then the temperamental incompatibility 
of Bajamonti and some of the National leaders, and 
principally the ascendancy gained in the Slav party 
by the clericalism of Pavlinovic, and the too one- 
sided and radical insistence of the purely Croat 
element as against the Serbo-Croat Unionist ten- 
dencies (on the basis of a wise decentralization) of 
the Liberal section of the party. But the breach, 
as we have already said, did not take place until 
later, and Bajamonti's career began with a furious 
struggle between the Mayor of Spalato, supported 

172 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

by the Nationalists, and the Majority of the fiercely 
Austrian, Anti-Slav and Centralist Autonomists. 

In the epoch-making sitting of 5th April, 1864, 
Bajamonti made the most explicit declaration with 
regard to the Slav character of this country. The 
eternal language question was under discussion. 
Klaic, the recognized leader of the Slav National 
Minority, opened the discussion with the following 
fiery words : 

" Let us call ourselves," he said, " what we please ; we 
shall never cease to be what we are — one people, one family. 
Let us call ourselves ' Autonomists,' ' Annexationists,' 
' Nationalists ' — we are all of us Dalmatians and consequently 
Slavs. The conflict that divides us is not a difference of 
race, or of culture ; it is not a national conflict, but simply 
a conflict of language. Not only are we not hostile to the 
language and culture of Italy, but we realize that we owe a 
great deal of our own progress to this language and to this 
culture. But precisely because we were educated in Italian 
culture, we ought not to deny our origin, nor become enemies 
of our own nation. Italian civilization is before all things 
a national civilization, and in effecting the complete nation- 
alization of her people, Dalmatia will show herself worthy of 
her preceptress. Our native land is small, but by its position, 
by its traditions, by the types of civilization represented 
in it, it is called upon to exercise great influence upon the 
intellectual progress of the neighbouring Slav peoples, our 
brothers. Ours is the task to steer it towards the destiny 
reserved by Providence, by ceasing from fratricidal conflict, 
by all uniting for a common action." 

Bajamonti replied : 

" Our opposition against a union with Croatia is not opposi- 
tion to our language, or our nationality. Our programme 
is : ' Slavs to-morrow, Croats never ! ' For us the question 
of annexation and that of nationality are two distinct ques- 
tions. Over the first we shall never agree, at least not until 

173 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the (Near) Eastern Question assumes greater importance. 
Over the second question, we must and shall agree. For 
the rest, the solution of the Annexationist question does not 
depend upon us. If the supreme interests of the State demand 
that we should become Croats, then Croats we shall be ; 
if on the other hand it suits the Government to leave us what 
we are — Slavs — Dalmatians, then such we shall remain. 
. . . Our present task, I repeat, consists in the union of all 
the Liberal forces in this Chamber, in the formation of a 
Liberal party within the country, a party which shall put 
the question of liberty before all other questions and ener- 
getically oppose the detrimental forces of the ruling party, 
and show that it is not we Liberals who are the enemies of 
His Majesty's Government, but rather those public officials 
who contaminate every noble institution and the generous 
intentions with which they are entrusted by the Government 
on behalf of the public weal, and injure our welfare in order 
to build up their private fortunes upon its ruins " (applause) . 

Bajamonti concluded this memorable speech by 
the following declaration : 

" The time has come for us to say boldly : apart from the 
annexation, the programme of the annexationists is our 
own programme as well" (lively applause). 

Klaic replied : 

" The annexation has always been for us before all things 
a question of nationality, because we look upon it as a legiti- 
mate means of safeguarding and strengthening the latter ; 
We have always considered the political question as secondary, 
and so we consider it also to-day. ... If, however, the Hon. 
Bajamonti, in declaring himself a Slav deputy, declares that, 
apart from the annexation, he shares our programme, then 
I hail these words with joy, nor do I perceive any discrepancy 
of opinion between us. His programme is ours. Without 
diffidence, and without distrust, let us labour together to 
improve the fate of our people, and prepare it for loftier 
aims " (frantic applause). 1 

1 Shorthand report of the Session of the Diet in 1864. 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Replying to a question by Dr. Filippi as to " How 
Croatia could be useful to our nationality ? " the 
Hon. Pavlinovic said that if the Hon. Member 
(Dr. Filippi) knew that our nationality is safeguarded 
there, and that beyond the Velebit our language 
is the official, scholastic and judicial language, he 
would understand what he at present appears to 
ignore. 

This patriotic debate, which promised a peaceful 
and harmonious development of Dalmatia after her 
chequered and bloodstained history, provoked violent 
irritation in Vienna. The Dalmatians dared to 
speak of concord and Slavism ? They would have 
to be put in their place. And in consequence of 
an incident between the Government Commissioners 
and Mr. Giljanovic, a leader of the Slav Liberal 
Autonomists, the Diet was dissolved two days later 
(on April 7th) by Imperial Decree. And this was 
the end of the debates on suggestions for the lan- 
guage problem, on the Budget of 1865, on the proposal 
to separate the civil administration from the military 
in Dalmatia, etc. The official organ of the Empire 
justified the dissolution of the Diet by accusations 
of angry debates, and " violent attacks upon the 
Government." 

That very day saw the foundation in Zara of the 
" Unione Liberate," which was joined by both 
Nationalists and Autonomists, i.e. by the entire 
Unionist party, as well as the Liberal wing of the 
Italian Autonomists, now called the Italian party. 
By way of specially pointing out his solidarity with 
the purely Slav party, Bajamonti put his name down 
in 1861 as one of the original members of the Serbo- 
Croatian literary society " Matica Dalmatinska." 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Until 1866, the paper II Nazionale, which appeared 
in Zara, was edited in Italian, and had ac- 
quired considerable fame by the courageous and 
honourable press campaign waged by its first editor, 
Sperato Nodilo, 1 served as party organ for both the 
purely Slav party (as I will call it) and the Liberal 
section of the Autonomists. 

But in 1866 the latter party judged it opportune 
to found its own paper, and thus appeared II Dal- 
mata, which to-day represents the so-called Italian 
party, while II Nazionale, transformed into the 
Narodni List (and edited exclusively in Serbo- 
Croatian), represented the interests of the Serbo- 
Croat Party, i.e. of the Majority in the Dalmatian 
Diet, a 

However, in that year, the year which by the entry 
of the Italian troops in Venice saw the realization 
of Tommaseo's dream, II Dalmata considered it 
necessary to pay a tribute to the national sentiment 
of Dalmatia, by publishing in its first issue (10th 
March, 1866) a programme, politically anti-Unionist, 
but from the national standpoint frankly Slav. 

" Slavs not only by race," thus runs the programme, of 
what is now the magnum organum of " Italianity " in Dal- 
matia — " but also in heart and feeling, we are the first to 
proclaim the legitimacy of the ties of kinship which link us 
with the other kinsmen of our race. These kinsmen number 
more than sixty million ; and if they do not all call them- 
selves Dalmatians, they are nevertheless all children of the 
one great mother. Proud of the sturdy fecundity of the 

1 The notable historian, born in Spalato in 1830. From 1874 
to his death in 191 2, Professor of Universal History at the University 
of Zagreb. 

1 Of 41 deputies, 35 are Serbo-Croats, as against 6 so-called 
Italians. 

176 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ancient stock from, which we sprang, we are the first to 
maintain that the genealogical tree of our nation should not 
confine its roots to the land between the shores of the Adriatic 
and the foot of the Velebit. These roots extend beyond 
the barren mountains by which Dalmatia is surrounded, and 
ramify far towards the north and east. . . . 

" We repeat that no one is more conscious of the principle 
of nationality than we are ; and if the welfare of the country 
does not render our union with the Croats inadvisable, we 
shall be only most eager to demand it. . . ." 

The six-centenary festival of Dante's birth had been 
celebrated in Dalmatia in the month of May of that 
year, before the foundation of the paper II Dalmata. 
In the absence of Count Pozza, who had gone to 
Florence to represent the literary societies of Croatia, 
Abbe Devic, acting as official speaker in Spalato, 
boldly said on this occasion : 

" Yes, we Dalmatians, although sons of another nation, 
know how to value the renown of the father of that literature, 
from which we have received the principles of our civilization 
and to which we are consummately grateful. Ah, may these 
principles help us in our present efforts for intellectual pro- 
gress through our own resources, our own language. 

" The development of the Slav nationality by Italian 
civilization — this definition sums up every Dalmatian pro- 
gramme, apart from all political theories." 

In 1874 Arturo Colautti, writing in the paper 
VAvvenire, hinted at an Italian nationality in Dal- 
matia as distinct from the Slav. Yet only two 
years earlier (in 1872) Colautti, then editor of II 
Dalmata, had adhered to the bi-lingual literary 
character of the Autonomist paper. His new attitude 
provoked the opposition of the Autonomist circles 
of Zara, who considered themselves bound to 
take up a firm stand. Already in 1871, Simeone 

177 m 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Ferrari-Cupilli and Enrico Matkovic had had the 
memorable Slav programme of 1866 reprinted on 
the front page of the Autonomist paper. 

In 1885 Colautti crossed the Adriatic and Signor 
Lapenna, leader of the Autonomist party, wrote 
on the eve of the elections for the Diet : 

" This party has been universally called the Italian party, 
it has been maligned in Dalmatia and accused of being hostile 
to the development of the Slav language and culture. . . . 
To distinguish an Italian national or political party in Dal- 
matia, in opposition to the National Slav party, is a grave 
mistake, in so far as it is not misleading." 

Thus and thus highly did this older generation 
respect the soul of the Dalmatian people, which is 
to-day represented by croakers as being a rabble 
without name and without truth, " of Slav speech," 
" unconscious of its own nationality." 

It is almost superfluous to add that these declara- 
tions by Italian-speaking Slavs regarding the Slav 
character of our renowned province were warmly 
echoed by the Slav-speaking Dalmatians, who did 
not omit to pay a frank tribute of admiration to 
Italian culture, the benefactress, not the tyrant, 
of the Slav spirit. We have already quoted Klaic. 
Let us not forget the statement by the most radical 
of the Slav politicians, Mr. Pavlinovic, who declared 
in the sitting of 30th March, 1864 : 

" I think no one will deny the love I bear my native tongue, 
but for all that it does not occur to me to be hostile to the 
Italian language which — next my own — I love above all 
others, as do all my countrymen." 

But the warmest tribute to Italian culture was 
paid by Count Constantine Vojnovic in his pamphlet 

178 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Un Voto per I'Unione, published in Spalato in 1861, 
and honoured by an exhaustive reply from Tommaseo. 1 
This young deputy, whose great influence on the 
political and social life of Dalmatia was cut short 
in 1874 by his appointment as Professor of Civil 
Law at the University of Zagreb, devoted some of 
his finest pages to Italy and her mission in Dalmatia. 

" To desire," he wrote, " that a purely Slav character 
should prevail on our shores as in Mostar and Sarajevo, would 
be to want the impossible ; to do violence to nature ; to 
attempt to cancel by the stroke of a pen the history of four 
centuries. Whether we wish it or not, Dalmatia will pass 
under the economic and intellectual influence of Italy, es- 
pecially when the latter shall once more become a great 
industrial, commercial and seafaring nation, and when the 
El Dorado of the East will have opened its portals to the 
eager desire of the West. A wiser policy would suggest that 
this influence should be employed not to the detriment, but 
to the advantage of the land which is destined to be the 
interpreter and intermediary between Jugoslavia and Italy. 3 

" But this cannot alter the fact that Dalmatia will remain 
Slav. Nor could she render an equally signal service to 
Italy or to herself by ceasing to be so. Certainly, wherever 
the Italian element and culture flourish, they must both 
be respected and cherished, while being made to work hand 
in hand with the development and growth of our native 
civilization. Dalmatia's mission, no less than that of Italy, 
lies in the nature of things, and is indicated in two important 
epochs of her history, viz. in the days of Rome and those 
under the Venetian domination. In the days of Augustus, 
Rome by the omnipotence of her arms and her civilization 
made her the bridge — as we have said before — between the 

1 Cf. " La Questione Dalmatica riguardata ne' suoi nuovi aspetti. 
Osservazioni all' opuscolo di Costantino Voinovich." In the 
volume II Serio nel Faceto, pp. 348-428. Le Monnier, 1868. 

z It should be remembered that this was written in 1861, and 
to-day, in 1916, we are faced by the whole problem as defined in 
those very terms. 

179 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

West and East. Venice succeeded in finding and guarding 
the road that leads to Constantinople. In either case this 
object was attained by conquest. 

" The Eastern crisis and Italy's growing power are bound 
to reopen the question of the East, and Dalmatia will again 
feel its influence, and for a third time take up her civilizatory 
mission. Only in conformity with the changed spirit of 
the times the policy of conquest will be abandoned, and its 
place taken by the peaceful influence of commerce and 
civilization. Whoever would put a different complexion 
upon the future, even more than the present relations 
between Dalmatia and Italy, is not worthy of bearing the 
name of Dalmatian, and would be repudiated by the noblest 
section of the very nation he was intending to serve. 
Tommaseo, when recently discussing the question with 
which we are dealing, rendered a great service to our country. 
Fond though he is of Italy — and he is one of her fairest and 
purest glories, and ours as well — : he declared that Dalmatia 
could not become Italian without loss of her own dignity 
and — we must add — without sacrificing her future. Whoever 
would deny Dalmatia her Slav nationality, would be mis- 
taken if he hoped to find sympathy and applause on the 
shores of the Arno or the Dora. The great and generous 
Italy of Alighieri, Alfieri, Foscolo and Niccolini, of Manzoni 
and Massimo d'Azeglio, will hold that what is sacred on 
the banks of the Sebeto is equally sacred on the banks of 
the Tizio, 1 and she who knows something about it will most 
unmistakably send about their business those who would 
apply two standards when it is a case of determining our 
rights and those of others, disciples not so much of Italian 
Civilization as of the Civilta Cattolica. 2 Whoever has not 
learnt from Italian history and literature to love his own 
nation, has learnt nothing, and is unworthy of Italy and 
of Slavdom." 

After indicating Italy's new mission of civilization 

1 The Sebeto, an Italian river — the Tizio (Titius), generally 
called the Krka, a river north of Sebenico. 

2 An illusion to the Jesuit review La Civilta Cattolica, at that 
time representing the reactionary spirit in politics. 

180 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

among the Slavs of Dalmatia and the Southern 
Slavs in general, Count Vojnovic proceeds : 

" It does not follow, however, that it would not be less 
dangerous for Dalmatia to wage an ungrateful and reprehen- 
sible war upon Italian culture to suppress it, than to render 
it prevalent and preponderant, thereby making it an obstacle, 
or rather an element hostile to the national development of 
the country. This latter course, we repeat, would inevitably 
lead to the crushing of the Italian spirit here. We have 
shown x that owing to the irresistible pressure of facts, Italian 
culture has for four centuries and a half taken up its stand 
on this perilous descent. It has invaded the schools, the 
administration, the law courts, the church, the theatre — in 
short, our whole civil and social life. It has led Dalmatia 
astray from her national vocation and made intellectual 
progress, such as it has been — scanty and futile — the monopoly 
of the Italian-speaking section of the community. This 
state of affairs must be gradually abated, unless we wish to 
provoke within a very short time a reaction against every- 
thing Italian, no less fierce than the reaction in Italy against 
the French influence towards the end of the seventeenth 
century, which found its most terrible and exaggerated 
expression in the ' Misogallo ' of Alfieri. We are witness- 
ing only too many of the premonitory symptoms already. 
And that is why we implore all those who sincerely love 
Italy, this alma parens of all civilized peoples, not to 
let it happen that her name may one day sound hateful to 
our nationality, but that she may be blessed and respected 
by Slavdom as she has been by the nations of the Latin race, 
whose spiritual and literary resurrection she has furthered; 
... In other respects the love which Dalmatians bear Italy 
and her culture will only be limited by the rule which a 
sage of ancient Greece recommended : Usque ad altaria, i.e. 
only by what we owe to the altar of our own conscience and 
our duty." 

And Vojnovic formulated the future Italo-Slav 
relations in Dalmatia as follows : 

1 In the first part of the lecture. 
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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

" Italian speech and culture should be held in trust for 
Dalmatia like a valuable investment and a sacred right, 
but they must be restricted within the limits of the national 
Slav vocation of the country. The union of Dalmatia with 
Croatia, which will give a strong and decided impulse to the 
native element, will necessarily impose such limits upon 
Italian culture, while rendering it fruitful for the cause of 
civilized progress in Dalmatia." » 

All these intensely practical ideas, which were 
evolved in Padua, and edited in Dalmatia, were 
subsequently crystallized in the programme pub- 
lished by the official organ of the Slav party, II 
Nazionale (ist March, 1862). From this programme 
we will quote the following clear and concise state- 
ment : 

" The Slav element among us, bound together by the 
indissoluble ties of language, common origin and territorial 
continuity, which are the characteristic outward signs of a 
nationality, forms the overwhelming majority of the Dalma- 
tian people. Let it be granted full enjoyment of the political 
right of association, of free speech and Press, and what force 
could then thwart the development of the Slav element in 
the country ? . . . We shall respect the Italian-speaking 
minority of from 15,000 to 20,000 souls ; their rights shall 
be sacred to us, and would be so even if they were still fewer 
in number ; for this reason, that we reverence liberty and 
trust them also. We only ask that special privileges, no 
matter whose, shall cease. The Dalmatian Slavs, whose 
title to nobility lies in their unmixed Indo-European origin, 
whence all the great civilized nations are derived, strong in 
the support of their brothers beyond the mountains, speaking 
one of the most morphologically perfect languages in Europe, 
have an indisputable right to free national development. 
Can a population of 400,000 souls permit its beautiful language 
to remain for ever ostracized ? Grateful to Italian civiliza- 
tion which has educated us, and more affectionately devoted 

1 Un voto per I'Unione, pp. 45-50. 
182 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

to our foster-mother than is believed of us, we are willing 
under these conditions to extend our hand to the opposite 
party, in order to hasten the material and intellectual pro- 
gress of our people whose sons we all are." 

We must now provide the reply to two questions 
of capital importance, for otherwise this study would 
be incomplete. 

How did the Autonomist party translate its 
protests of patriotic love into action, and how did 
it contrive to turn itself from a Slav into an Italian 
party ? What did Bajamonti mean by his cele- 
brated formula : " Slavs to-morrow, Croats never " ; 
and how did the breach with the Autonomist-Italian 
party over the question of National unity originate 
and widen ? 

I must say at once that the Dalmatians themselves 
took care to reply to these questions in a clear and 
unequivocal manner, in spite of every conspiracy 
against the national soul. And in so far lis judicata est. 

For the last forty-five years the overwhelming 
majority of the representatives of the Dalmatian 
people have been Slav (Serbo-Croats) in language, 
sentiment and aspirations. An irresistible current 
has seized upon men and events, in spite of tyranny, 
shortcomings, mistakes, opportunism and all the 
faults of omission and commission, which were 
sometimes dictated by the cast-iron necessity of 
saving the most precious possession of all, the 
national individuality, from the attacks of a 
State which always dealt treacherously with its 
peoples. 

From 1870 to 1912, during the term of eight 
Governments, the will of the people was conclusively 
manifested in the elections. Of the forty-one 

183 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

deputies which constituted the Diet of the kingdom, 
thirty-five were Slavs. 

To understand the full significance of this fact, 
which no one can henceforth modify or explain 
away by force or fraud to their own advantage, it 
must be borne in mind that in Dalmatia the elections 
for the Provincial Diet are still carried out under 
the antiquated class system of electoral law. By 
this system sundry privileged electoral units (most 
highly taxed citizens, peasant communes, boroughs, 
chambers of commerce), representing a narrow circle 
of interests and certain political cliques, are rendered 
equal to the great mass of the people — to the obvious 
detriment of the representation of genuine popular 
sentiment. This alone explains the presence of even 
six Italian deputies in the Dalmatian Diet. The 
proof of our assertion is furnished by the lesson 
of the elections for the Central Parliament in Vienna 
(the Reichsrat), to which Dalmatia sends eleven 
deputies, elected on the basis of universal suffrage. 
Not one of these eleven deputies belongs to the 
Italian party, and all, without exception, belong to 
the Slav (Serbo-Croat) population of the country. 1 
Acting as the mouthpiece of practically the whole 
Dalmatian people, these, its representatives, voted 
a Memorial to the Crown (3rd September, 1870), 
in which they solemnly demanded the union of 
Dalmatia with the sister provinces of Croatia and 
Slavonia as a first great step towards national union. 
And from 1870 onwards, in spite of the machination 
of the Autonomist Minority and the strenuous 
opposition of the Austrian Government, the repre- 
sentatives of the Dalmatian people have on countless 

1 See Appendix II. 
184 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

occasions reasserted in face of the Crown the wish 
of Dalmatia to associate herself definitely with the 
rest of the Jugoslav lands in the Empire. 

In the following pages the reader will find the 
detailed reply to the questions put on p. 183. 



185 



CHAPTER IV 

Electoral triumph of the Slav Unionist party — Petition to the 
Crown (3rd September, 1870) — Popular suffrage in Dalmatia 
— Defection of the Autonomist party from the programme of 
1866 and its subsequent vicissitudes — The Autonomist party 
at the cross-roads — Birth of the " Italian " party (1874) — 
Tactics of the two parties — Liberal complexion of the Unionist 
programme— Croat invitation to the Dalmatians in i860 — 
Agitation of the Austrian Government against the Croatian 
proposal — Division between the two parties — Political mis- 
takes — Defence of the Serbo-Croatian language—Negative 
character of the Italian programme. 



This book being rather in the nature of a summary, 
I must refrain from going into all the phases of the 
duel between the antiquated idea of an autonomous 
Dalmatia tending to become more and more Italian in 
character, and the idea of the new age, i.e. the vin- 
dication of the Slav character of Dalmatia and of its 
union with the sister provinces. But as we have 
now arrived at the supreme crisis which decided the 
final triumph of the Slav character of Dalmatia, it is 
necessary to give a general sketch of the historic 
movement by which the oligarchic regime was forced 
to yield before the first manifestation of the national 
will. 

The first months of 1870 witnessed an epoch 
of profound dissension in the Austrian Cabinet. 
One section, consisting of fanatical Germans (Plener, 

186 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Hasner, Giskra, Herbst and Brestel), advocated the 
application of the Dualist Regime inaugurated in 
1867, in other words, of a Centralist system with 
two faces — a German face in Cisleithania, and a 
Magyar face in Transleithania. This group enjoyed 
the unconditional and unwavering support of the 
Italian Autonomists in Dalmatia, led by the deputy 
Lapenna. The opposing section (Taaffe, Berger and 
Potocki) on the other hand desired an understanding 
with the Slav peoples and proposed the dissolution 
of the Imperial Parliament (Reichsrat) and the 
Provincial Diets, in order to inquire into the situa- 
tion with the help of a new set of national representa- 
tives. After hesitating for a long time, the Emperor 
declared himself for the Majority in the Cabinet 
and requested Hasner to form a new ministry. But 
the federalist agitation was increasing. Greatly 
alarmed, Count Beust, the Foreign Minister, advised 
a policy of conciliation, in opposition to Giskra, 
who preached " Nur nicht slavisch ! " (Anything 
but Slav !) The Diets refused to send delegates to 
the Reichsrat. The Czechs abstained, with the result 
that the Imperial Parliament, instead of numbering 
203 delegates, was reduced to 129. Finally, Hasner 
handed in his resignation, Potocki came into power 
with Taaffe as Minister of the Interior, amid the 
acclamations of the Federalist party, and the new 
Cabinet promptly dissolved the Diets (22nd May, 
1870). The Nazionale expressed the confidence 
of the nation in the forthcoming elections, which 
would be carried out free from administrative 
pressure and would put an end to the tyranny of 
a party which had for seven years pretended to 
represent Dalmatia. 

187 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The Neue Freie Presse entered the lists on behalf 
of the Autonomist party and gave space in its 
columns to Lapenna's letters from Zara, in which 
he frankly accused the Slav party of sedition and 
irredentism. In these diatribes the new Governor, 
Baron Rodic, was invited to choose between the 
rebellious Serbs of Bocche di Cattaro leagued with 
the Slav agitators of Prague, Zagreb, Belgrade and 
Moscow, and the Autonomist party, representing 
Dalmatian " intelligentsia " and respect for the 
Constitution, and the one source of support left to 
the Government in Dalmatia. 

The elections took place on 4th, 7th and 9th July. 
Taaffe had solemnly promised that they should be 
carried out in absolute liberty, free from all inter- 
ference from the administration. The Autonomists 
replied by organizing a veritable State within a 
State, a revolt of the official personnel against the 
Government. The district chiefs Franz, Eluschegg, 
Laneve, Fortis and Barbieri, strong adherents of 
the late Centralist Cabinet, did all they could to 
bring pressure to bear on the electors and secure the 
triumph of the Italian candidates, while the Nazionale 
asked nothing from the Government but " impartiality 
and justice." A few hours before the ballot, the 
Nazionale addressed the following appeal to the 
electors : " On the eve of the Battle of Trafalgar 
Nelson signalled to the Fleet : ' England expects 
every man to do his duty.' On the morrow 
every sailor did his duty and the enemy fleet 
was destroyed. To-day we address the same message 
to you : ' The country expects every man to do 
his duty.' " 

In point of fact, despite countless acts of adminis- 
18$ 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

trative pressure, and despite all attempts at inti- 
midation on the part of the ruling party, the triumph 
of the Slav Nationalists was complete. The rural 
communes returned seventeen Slav and three Italian- 
Autonomist candidates ; the towns and Chambers 
of Commerce (Sebenico, Ragusa, Cattaro, and the 
Chambers of Commerce of Zara and Ragusa) returned 
five Slav and six Autonomist candidates. The 
successful Autonomist candidates were returned 
by Zara, where Petrovic, an Autonomist Orthodox 
Serb, was elected ; Spalato, where Bajamonti was 
re-elected ; Makarska, Lesina, Curzola and the Spalato 
Chamber of Commerce. 

The constituencies subjected to the greatest pres- 
sure returned three Slav candidates (Cattaro and 
Ragusa) and seven Autonomists (Zara and Spalato). 
Total, twenty-five Slavs and sixteen Autonomists. 
The result of the elections was hailed with an outburst 
of joy, not only in Dalmatia itself, but throughout 
the Jugoslav lands. Zagreb was filled with boundless 
enthusiasm. 

" The electoral victory of the National party in Dalmatia," 
wrote the principal organ of the National party in Croatia, 
" is the happiest and most important event that has occurred 
among our people since 1848. Darkness reigns in all our 
lands — in Croatia, in Bosnia, in Serbia, in the old Serbian 
Vojvodina. Now a friendly star has arisen in Dalmatia, 
which sheds its light upon us all, and brings us the glad 
assurance of a happier future." 

But the Government in Vienna remained true 
to its habitual policy of deceit, which remains the 
same alike under Taaffe, or Schmerling, or Clam 
Martinic. Together with the new Governor-General 
Rodic it appointed one of the most detested officials 

189 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the Centralist regime, Alesani, to act as a check 
upon the Governor and the new Majority. The 
first President of the Diet was appointed from the 
Slav Majority, Mr. Ljubisa, an Orthodox Serb, 
who had been an energetic champion of the National 
cause ever since 1861. The use of the Serbo-Croat 
language was at once adopted for the official record 
of the Diet, not exclusively, but on an equal footing 
with the Italian. But even this concession to an 
infinitesimal Minority failed to console the Auto- 
nomists. Lost and humiliated, they abstained from 
taking part in the sittings, and eight of their number, 
including Bajamonti, Filippi and Radmilli, resigned 
their seats. 

On the morrow of the triumph of the Slav National 
party, II Nazionale wrote as follows : 

"In all rural communes, with the exception of four or 
five islands, the National idea has brought all hearts into 
one single camp. Neither force nor fraud can rob us of these 
constituencies. If our enemies should dare to dispute 
them, they would first have to declare a state of siege in 
Dalmatia and draft thoxisands of soldiers into each electoral 
district." 

The first official action undertaken by the new 
Majority was a demonstration in favour of the 
union, regardless of the emphatic declarations of 
the Imperial Commissioner, who protested that the 
question of " State Rights " had already been 
decided, so far as Dalmatia was concerned — on 
the basis of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise 
of 1867. In the memorable sitting of September 
3rd, the Majority unanimously voted an Address 
to the Crown, expressing in the name of the Diet 

190 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the wish of Dalmatia to be united with Croatia. 
It was Count VojriQvid's A Vote for Union transformed 
into a collective vote. 

This Address of 1870 constitutes the programme 
of the Dalmatian National party. They demanded, 
like their predecessors in 1797, that all those lands 
which are akin in blood and language and share the 
same aspirations, should be united in a single unit. 
In more modern parlance, they demanded the appli- 
cation of the principle of nationality, on the basis 
of ancient agreements and within the framework 
of the Empire. They thus also paid due respect to 
the historic principle. 

There was a twofold principle underlying the 
Address of 1870. Dalmatia forms an integral, even 
an essential part of the Serbo-Croat territorial bloc 
which in the Middle Ages formed a kingdom between 
the Save, the Drave and the Adriatic. The inclusion 
of Dalmatia within this national bloc is connected 
with the history of Hungary, and in particular with 
the coronation of Koloman, King of Hungary and 
Croatia, as King of Dalmatia in 1102. Their joint 
history was several times interrupted by the 
Venetian domination. But it was never really 
obliterated, and it certainly was never forgotten by 
the people. 

In 1527 the Croatian Estates, meeting at Cetin 
in Dalmatia, freely elected Ferdinand I King of 
Croatia. Several Dalmatian representatives were 
present, and Bishop Andrew of Knin took his place 
in the Assembly as a baron of the kingdom. It is 
true that Dalmatia was not represented when in 
1712 the Estates of the Austrian and Hungarian 
lands accepted the Pragmatic Sanction. But in 

191 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

1797, upon the fall of the Republic of Venice, the 
municipalities and rural communes of Dalmatia 
decided with one accord to proclaim Francis II 
as King of Dalmatia likewise, and this decision 
was confirmed by the Royal Manifesto of 3rd July, 
1797. Certainly throughout the reigns of Francis 
II (I of Austria) and Ferdinand V (I of Austria) 
it was frankly deemed impossible to realize the 
union which they desired. But by the Diploma 
of 26th February, 1861, Francis Joseph declared 
the provincial statute of Dalmatia to be of a merely 
provisional nature, until the reunion of that province 
with the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia could 
be transformed into a realit}/. Dalmatia was even 
invited to co-operate with the Croatian Parliament 
in the steps necessary for the renewal of the old 
political and national tie. 

" Unfortunately," the address proceeds, " all the generous 
intentions of Your Majesty and Your Majesty's predecessors 
have failed to be put in effect, although the Dalmatian people 
was thoroughly conscious of where it belongs, in virtue of 
a public right which is fully in harmony with the natural right 
of nationality. 

" Therefore, the deputies of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, 
petition Your Majesty for such measures as shall enable the 
representatives of the two countries (Dalmatia and Croatia) 
to open the necessary negotiations for the re-establishment 
of their union." 1 

The Crown replied to this address of the Slav 
Majority by vague and inconclusive promises — 

1 There follows the Dalmatian Book of Grievances : 
I. Anti-national administration ; II. Judicial corruption ; 
III. Neglect of public instruction ; IV. Demand for the introduc- 
tion of the Serbo-Croat language in the schools, law courts, and 
administration, so that " the people which we represent may no 

192 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and nothing came of the union. The idea of it, 
however, had taken powerful hold of the minds in 
all Jugoslav lands, including Serbia and Montenegro. 
Unionists and Irredentists alike understood that it 
contained the germ of that ampler idea of Jugoslav 
union as divined and outlined by Gaj and Stross- 
mayer among the Croats ; by Michael Obrenovic 
and Ristic among the Serbs, and by Peter II in 
Montenegro. Everybody was alive to the fact 
that these partial unions were only the prologues, 
or at best necessary stages on the road to the general 
union. But Austria and Hungary (who would 
gladly have dispensed with the insistent appeal 
to Koloman's coronation) likewise understood only 
too well, and took care to discourage every proposal 
for Dalmato-Croatian negotiations. A long series 
of obstinate refusals was all the answer vouch- 
safed by Austria to the request of the Dalmatian 
people, which had been frequently seconded by the 
National Assembly in Zagreb from 1806 onward. 1 
That the demand for union implied a grave danger 
for the Monarchy is further shown by the fact that 

longer be a stranger in its own house " ; V. Partial application 
of the Military Act ; VI. The insurrection at Bocche di Cattaro 
was most regrettable, but it was claimed that the ancient usages 
and national customs of Bocche di Cattaro, Ragusa and Dalmatia 
as a whole should be respected ; VII. Agriculture, industry and 
the mercantile marine call for emergency measures ; VIII. The 
Customs system calls for reform ; IX. Complete absence of rail- 
roads, their construction urgently demanded. 

If we compare this document with Daniel Martin's Memorandum 
of 5th January, 1848, we shall see that that great patriot demanded 
very much the same from Austria for Venetia as the Dalmatian 
patriots claimed for Dalmatia in 1870. Cf. Tivaroni, L'ltalia 
durante it dominio Austriaco. L'ltalia settentrionale, vol. i. pp. 515— 
516. Turin, Rome, 1892. 

1 The Croatian Diet, officially styled the Diet of the Kingdoms 

193 N 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

whenever the Dalmatian Diet sought to revive the 
proposal, it was invariably prevented from doing 
so by an Imperial order, by a prorogation of the 
session, or even by dissolution. Meanwhile any 
extra-Parliamentary demand for the union, through 
the Press or public meetings, was frequently sup- 
pressed by confiscation and even imprisonment. 

To those who would decry the Dalmatian people 
as the blind instrument of Austrian suggestion, 
we may reply in the words of Count Cavour : 

" It is not sufficient for the establishment of a nation," 
he declared in June i860, " that the country in question 
should have witnessed the birth within it of great citizens, 
who by their nationality necessarily belong to the nationality 
in dispute. What is needed is that the mass of the population 
should belong to this nationality. And in spite of bribes, 
pressure and influence, the result (of the elections) will always 
approximately reflect the state of public opinion. ..." 

Referring to the plebiscite of Nice, he added : 

" I quite believe that influence and bribes may have deter- 
mined a few votes, but as to the vote of the mass, the vote 
of those twenty-six to twenty-seven thousand inhabitants 
who were in favour of France— never believe it, gentlemen, 
that this was the result of bribery or influence. If it were 
so, we should have to say that the people of Nice are corrupt 
to the core, to permit themselves to be so easily intimidated 
and led astray." * 

Now any one with some knowledge of the Dalmatian 

of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, submitted Addresses to the 
Crown in favour of the union of Dalmatia and Croatia in the follow- 
ing years : 1806, 1825, 1832, 1839, 1845, 1848, 1851, 1868, 1878. 
After the last-named date, the resolution was renewed automatically 
in each legislative period, until the war of 191 4. 
1 Dicorsi Parlamentari Ed. ufficiale, vol. vi. 

194 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

people cannot but testify favourably to their quick 
intelligence, admirable common sense, pride and 
self-respect. In spite of the large percentage of 
illiterates, 1 our people exhibits daily a profound 
philosophy of life, a wealth of feeling and expression 
and a moral sense infinitely greater than are dis- 
played by peoples with a far smaller percentage of 
illiterates. To the objection that the masses " of 
Slav speech " are lacking in national consciousness, 
we might, fairly reply by pointing out the total 
absence of " national consciousness " in many of 
the detractors of the Dalmatian people. There 
are many such who, having risen superior to their 
illiterate parents and grandparents through the 
blessings of higher education, have profited by it 
to renounce the faith and nationalit}^ of their fathers. 
I may also quote the testimony of Giuseppe Mazzini 
and Cesare Correnti, both of whom regretfully stated 
in 1847, that in fifteen years they had only succeeded 
in implanting political interest in the academic 
youth. Among the masses they had failed utterly. 3 
' The masses never take the initiative, not even if 
one could achieve the impossible feat of preaching 

1 According to the Census of 1910 62 - 8 per cent, of the popula- 
tion of Dalmatia were illiterates, but this proportion must have 
been much smaller in 191 6, considering that in the course of only 
ten years the percentage had already fallen from 73-3 per cent, 
to 62 - 8 per cent. If we compare these figures with the Italian 
returns, we find that the provinces of Basilicata and Calabria 
show an even higher percentage of illiterates (65' 3 and 69 '6), while 
the Abruzzi with 57"6, Apulia with 59"4, Sicily with 58-0, Sardinia 
with 58-0 and the Campagna with 53-7 are scarcely better off than 
Dalmatia (Census of 191 1). But it should not be forgotten that 
even Tuscany, the cradle of Dante, Michael Angelo and Galileo, 
still shows a percentage of 37-4 illiterates (48-2 in 1901). 

* Cesare Correnti, quoted by Salvemini in his Mazzini, p. 32. 

195 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

them into a revolution. But they will follow the 
men of the middle classes, if the latter wish it." * 
Seventy years later Signor Ivanoe Bonomi did not 
hesitate to say that even to-day " those ignorant 
of this historical process are amazed when, in the 
rich townships of the Paduan plains, they hear the 
socialist peasants profess the most utter indifference 
to the fate of the country." 2 

Hence it would be absurd and unjust to demand 
from the mass of the Dalmatian people what could 
not be expected from the mass of Italian people — 
that they should initiate a movement, or furnish 
the proof of having risen within the shortest possible 
time by their own unaided efforts to full self-con- 
sciousness. But we have no hesitation in asserting 
that no people has ever progressed so rapidly to a 
consciousness of its ethnic individuality as the 
Dalmatian people, or indeed the whole Serbo-Croat 
people from the Adriatic to the Danube. The 
phenomenon would be difficult to understand except 
upon the assumption that the national sentiment 
was strongly rooted in its nature and that it had 
merely lain fallow for centuries, waiting for an educated 
and intellectual class to cause it once more to become 
fruitful. 



1 Mazzini, cit. ibid. 184. 

s We recommend his interesting article, " II Socialismo Italiano 
e la Guerra," in the Nuova Rassegna of 28th June, 1916. The said 
article also contains the following : " In 1843 the Italian Liberals 
complained of the hostility of the peasantry who constituted the 
powerful reserve of the counter-revolution. Garibaldi mentions 
in his memoirs that he always found his followers in the cities, 
never in the country. . . . The city accomplished the revolution, 
while the country merely endured it." 

196 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

II 

The Autonomist party did not remain true to the 
programme of 1866. When invited to help in the 
development of the national language and its introduc- 
tion (though only within limits) into the public life 
of the country, this party suddenly refused its 
co-operation and even attacked the language of 
the race to which, by their own confession, its mem- 
bers belonged. The Nazionale more than once 
pointed out this lack of logic. " The Autonomists " 
— so we read in 1867 — " declare that they are 
certainly opposed to annexation, but that they do not 
wish to advocate the Italianization of the province. 
Facts, however, contradict these statements. When 
have the Autonomists ever supported the proposal 
to introduce Serbo-Croat in the schools ? When 
have they presented a Slav institution with a little 
of the money they have amassed in Dalmatia ? 
But instead of that they rebel when there is a question 
of drawing up the minutes of the Diet in Serbo- 
Croat as well as in Italian." l 

1 Among the countless hostile demonstrations on the part of 
the Autonomist party against the Slav character of the province 
— always admitted by the party, however — we will mention the 
vote recorded in the Diet on 23rd September, 1868. During the 
sitting the Slav Minority demanded that the authorities should, 
when dealing with administrative or legal documents, employ the 
language of the party which had handed them in. This very modest 
request was refused by the vote of all the Autonomists, with the 
sole exception of Jacopo Ghiglianovitch. The two prelates who 
hold seats in the Dalmatian Diet, viz. the Catholic Archbishop 
of Zara and the Orthodox Bishop of Cattaro, also voted against 
the suggestion, at the instigation of Lapenna, who acted by order 
of the Imperial Government. Next day the Nazionale wrote the 
following indignant words : " In the history of our people, the 
23rd of September will henceforth be marked in black. Future 

197 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The Autonomist party, hedged round with a barren 
negative policy, insisted upon confusing the political 
aspect of the question with the racial-national 
aspect. While insisting upon the ethnically Slav 
character of Dalmatia, its members nevertheless 
lacked the large-mindedness to pursue this idea to 
its strict and logical conclusions and refused to admit 
the necessity of a union of Dalmatia with the sister 
provinces. And they were weak enough to yield 
to suggestions from a quarter where the principle 
of divide et impera was reduced to a system of 
Government. They were thus finally reduced to 

generations will refuse to believe that the Majority in a National 
Assembly had proceeded to the Order of the Day over the body 
of an entire nation. No greater insult could have been proffered 
us. . . . But the day will come when, remembering the 23rd of 
September, we, the native race of this country, then masters of 
our own destiny, shall proceed over the statutes of a few aliens 
and apostates to the Order of the Day, and shall do so for good." 
With reference to the school question it is interesting to note 
the returns referring to scholars at the Secondary Schools (Gym- 
uasia) of Zara, Spalato, Sinj and Ragusa, as published in the 
Austrian official statistics of 1865, the year when the Autonomist 
party in Dalmatia was at the height of its power, besides engaging 
the powerful support of the Government. As regards nationality, 
the returns work out as follows : Zara : Croats and Serbs 85, Italians 
151 ; Spalato: Croats and Serbs 175, Italians none; Sinj : Croats 
and Serbs 44, Italians none ; Ragusa, Croats and Serbs 124, Italians 
none. The large number of Italians (151) in Zara is due to two 
factors, which have nothing to do with the principle of nationality : 
(a) The presence in Zara (which is the headquarters of the Pro- 
vincial administration) of a large number of officials, mainly 
natives of Dalmatia, but until 1865 generally selected from the 
bureaucratic reserves of Venice. Naturally these officials described 
their sons as Italians, either because they really were Italians, or 
because they wished to curry favour with the powerful Centralist 
Government in Vienna, (b) The presence in Zara of many families 
of Italian business men, immigrants from the kingdom, who have 
helped to spread false impressions in Italy concerning the ethnical 
character of Dalmatia, and Zara in particular. 

198 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

opposing the claims of a language whose supremacy 
their own party had proclaimed. 

Of course there was no way out of this dilemma, 
and after the pitiful political death of Bajamonti 
no one tried to find one. The party drifted into a 
purely negative policy, flatly opposed to the progress 
of facts, no less than to its own traditions as regards 
language and political programme. By their in- 
ability to set bounds to their devotion to Italian 
culture, which their opponents admired no less than 
themselves, they merely provoked a violent reaction 
against Italian culture, which kept pace, as Bajamonti 
had foreseen, with the development of the Near 
Eastern Question. This reaction was in fact the 
deplorable but natural consequence of the dangerous 
theory of a " superior " and an " inferior " race — 
a theory which the Autonomist party itself had 
strenuously opposed in its early phases. 

The formula " Slavs to-morrow, Croats never ! " 
(carefully qualified by Bajamonti himself, who sought 
to link it with the solution of the Near Eastern 
Question) was negative and paradoxical in spite of 
its confession of Slavdom. It was of a piece with 
that other declaration by Count Borelli, that Dalmatia 
ought to associate herself with the Serb provinces of 
Turkey (this was in 1862 !) — and not with those 
already included in the Habsburg Monarchy ! In 
fact, they conjured up the distant mirage of an as 
yet unrealizable Slav organism, in order to divert 
the attention of the people from the realizable solu- 
tion lying at their doors. This paradox was denounced 
by the National party. 

" We appeal to any one gifted with ordinary common sense," 
wrote Count Vojnovid. " What would they say of us abroad 

199 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

if they knew that we in Dalmatia are now faced by a problem, 
the solution of which is doubtful ; and that our separation 
from a brother nation at our doors asking to be associated 
with us is regarded as a preparation for our union with a 
people of the same race which is still groaning under the 
iron rod of the Ottoman Pasha ? We can quite understand 
a difference of opinion with regard to the manner of our 
union with Croatia and Slavonia. But how any one can 
question the advisability of the union itself, how any one 
can oppose it in face of everybody and in every shape, and 
yet suggest to Dalmatia the supreme aim to which we referred, 
we absolutely fail to understand. It is contrary to the 
elementary laws of sense and reason that one should pursue 
an object, and at the same time fiercely reject the means 
which not only political wisdom but ordinary common sense 
suggests as conducive to its realization." l 

Vojnovic" then propounds the dilemma : 

" Either we believe that Dalmatia is Slav, even a chosen 
and privileged part of Slavdom, and that her union with 
Croatia and Slavonia (which would be perfectly consistent 
with constitutional law and the true national interest) can 
only lead to mutual reinforcement and secure for us through 
the enfranchisement of our unhappy brothers from the 
harsh Turkish yoke that influence which Providence has 
destined for us, and of which, if God and fortune favour us, 
the cruel hand of strangers shall never again deprive us ! 
Or, again, there are those who find that Dalmatia is no longer 
Slav, and look for her future to another quarter. Then we 
will recommend them to read what Tommaseo said on this 
subject in his first pamphlet on the union and frankly 
quote the dictum of a French publicist (with regard 
to quite another question), that in that case Unionist 
and Autonomist ' speak two languages which have nothing 
in common. . . .' What is truth and justice in one party 
becomes deceit and iniquity for the other. Under such 
conditions all discussions can only serve to show up more 
clearly the impossibility of an agreement and reveal the vic- 

1 Un Voto per I' Unions, p. 38-39. 
200 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tory of one of the two parties over the other.' We repeat 
with him that we are convinced that it will not be the party 
of progress and liberty, in fact the National party, which 
will go to the wall." 

In this constant conflict between recognized 
premises and rejected conclusions, the members 
of the Autonomist party, entrenched in the partly 
dismantled citadel of Zara, held aloof from all con- 
tact with the people at large. National life with 
its manifold manifestations continued to evolve 
beyond their ken and without their participation, 
like a dance whose music they could not grasp. 

The divorce of the party from the Dalmatian 
people did not, however, become absolute until 
1874. This year saw the birth of an " Italian nation- 
ality " in Dalmatia. Beaten at the by-elections 
for the Dalmatian Diet, and having lost all hope 
of regaining the majority in Parliament by help 
of the support of the Imperial Government, the 
Autonomist party changed its tactics. In order 
to benefit by Article 19 of the Constitution, which 
guarantees to all the languages of the Empire the 
right of free development, it transformed itself 
into the " Italian party." And by a cruel irony of 
history the first who officially put forward the claim 
of an " Italian nationality " in Dalmatia, was not 
even an Italian, but a certain Dr. Keller, who was 
born in Dalmatia but of German parents, and now 
sat in the Reichsrat as representative of the Dalmatian 
taxpayers. 1 

In the sitting of 10th December, 1874, while op- 
posing, as a German, the proposal to Slavicize the 

1 Under the old curial franchise which then prevailed. 
201 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

secondary schools in Dalmatia, Keller incidentally 
stated that " he spoke in the name of the Italian 
nationality in Dalmatia." Hereby he placed himself 
in direct opposition to his party chief Lapenna who, 
as we have seen, always protested against the epithet 
" Italian " being bestowed upon the Autonomist 
party, and to Bajamonti, who even in 1874 declared 
in the Diet — after his defection ! — that " he would 
be neither Italian nor Slav, but Dalmatian." This 
bold challenge was taken up by the deputy Klaic : 

" The Italian language," he replied, " exists in Dalmatia, 
and no one will marvel at it who knows the history of our 
country ; but an Italian nationality, in the proper sense of 
the word, does not exist." 

Keller's declaration aroused a general protest, 
almost a commotion throughout the country 
The Commune of Knin took the initiative with a 
solemn collective assertion of the Slav character of 
the province and of practically all the communes 
that constitute it. The Autonomist party had com- 
mitted suicide. The great Dalmatian had preceded 
it into the grave in Florence, in merciful ignorance 
of the collapse of the dominant idea of his life. 

Nor can the National party be regarded as alto- 
gether blameless. Their mistake lay in presuming 
too much upon the moral resources and political 
preparedness of an exhausted and torpid province. 
And yet the period lent itself singularly to the 
realization of the boldest dreams. Between the 
October Diploma of i860, by which Austria seemed to 
inaugurate a genuine Constitutional era, and the 
defeat of Sadowa of 1866, which deprived her of the 
leadership of the German Confederation, the fortunes 

202 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the House of Habsburg had borne it to the threshold 
of a new and brilliant phase in its chequered career. 
Not inaptly did Cardinal Mazarin once remark : 
" Toutes les fois que la maison d'Autriche a €t€ 
aux abois, elle a tire un miracle de sa poche." 

Had the House of Habsburg ever really understood 
its position as arbiter between East and West, it 
might easily have bound up in an Imperial sheaf, 
as it were, the exuberant forces of its various nation- 
alities. The latter were only too anxious to develop 
harmoniously and at not too great a cost under the 
shadow of an impartial Central Power, and thus 
to form a strong Federation, which might have 
permanently steadied the European balance of 
power and solved the Near Eastern problem in 
its own interests — which would in that case have 
been the common interest of Europe. It was a 
supreme opportunity which never presented itself 
again. The Habsburgs refused to call to mind 
anything but their German descent and the etymology 
of their ancestral title : Habichtsburg — The Castle 
of the Hawk. They preferred to act as propagators 
of aggressive Germanism, and ever since '66 shaped 
their course light-heartedly towards the stupendous 
catastrophe which has at this moment overthrown 
them. 

But while admitting that the moment was pro- 
pitious for the unification of kindred peoples, it is 
idle to ignore that the Dalmatian National party, 
intoxicated by the spectacle of the Italian Risorgi- 
mento, exaggerated the political side of its mission, 
to the undeniable detriment of the national interest. 

The actual condition of Dalmatia demanded rather 
that the uncertain flame of national sentiment 

203 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

should be carefully kept burning and strengthened 
in perfect agreement with the Liberal Autonomist 
party, and that all theories of the historic rights 
of the province, which had been obscured by so 
many centuries of alien rule, should be laid aside 
until a more propitious time. 

" The members of the National party," cried Galvani, 
an Autonomist deputy, in 1865, " allow themselves to be 
guided by two pole-stars, one on this side of the Velebit, and 
the other beyond it." 

Vojnovic replied : 

" The only pole-star upon which our eyes are fixed is the 
development and realization of the Slav nationality in 
Dalmatia, by liberty within the bounds of the Constitution." 

Wise words, the corroboration of which is furnished 
by the speaker's own definition of historic rights : 
" Historic rights are everything and nothing : Noth- 
ing when they rest upon violence ; everything when 
they are in agreement with nature and are the 
interpretation of the national life in public and 
private rights." This definition, so often quoted 
in the debates of the Dalmatian Diet, is plain 
and unequivocal. But everything depended upon 
applying it with tact and moderation to a body 
politic debilitated by having been for centuries 
kept out of both its historic and national rights, 
and by more than a hundred years of social and 
spiritual torpor. The " men of the new course " 
ought to have carefully pondered Mazzini's profound 
analysis : "To confound the exaggeration of a 
principle with the principle itself is a mistake as 
frequently found in those who deny as in those 

204 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

who approve. The former fear to be drawn by a first 
consequence to an undesired goal ; and therefore 
they obstinately deny everything ; or, forcing the 
principle to its ultimate consequences, in order to 
fight it better, they persuade themselves that the 
principle and these ultimate consequences are one 
and the same thing. (This applies absolutely to 
the members of the Liberal wing of the Autonomist 
party and their cry of " We will not be Croats," 
which nobody had ever asked them to be.) " The 
latter, wearied perhaps by having to win every 
strategic position slowly and by endless struggles, 
proceed at once to demand the acceptance of the 
final corollary, so that, if indeed they are successful, 
all intermediate propositions will likewise be gained 
by them." (This applies to the National party, 
which was only too prone to apply moral pressure 
at the very outset to public opinion as yet insufficiently 
prepared for the union of Dalmatia with Croatia.) 
" Thus," concludes Mazzini, " the scruples of the 
former and the impatience of the latter only further 
complicate the questions and close the way to a 
peaceful issue." 1 

Yet in i860 the ways to peace were still well 
open. In virtue of an autograph Imperial letter 
addressed direct to the Ban of Croatia, a Conference 
was convoked in Zagreb on 5th December. In 
his letter the Emperor- King declared himself 
" disposed to adhere to the wishes which have come 
to My knowledge concerning the union of My 
Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia," and 
informed the Ban that he " had taken the necessary 
measure whereby deputies from My Kingdom of 

1 II Dvamma Storico, pp. 63-64. Scritti Scelti, Milano, 191 5, 

205 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dalmatia shall be convened to the Banal Conference 
to discuss the question, to the end that it may be 
thoroughly investigated and regulated in such a 
manner as shall satisfy all parties." 

The Conference had replied by issuing a proclama- 
tion to the Dalmatians (19th December), which 
deserves to be quoted in full, both as an eloquent 
summary of all the reasons militating in favour of 
union, and because it derives its inspiration from 
the same principles which underlay the unification 
of Italy. 

" Dalmatians, countrymen ! " — thus ran this memorable 
document. " You know well that your people and our people 
on either side of the Velebit are but one nation ; you know 
that for many glorious centuries we lived together under 
the same Sovereign, under the same laws, observing the 
same customs. United we repelled the violence of the Turks, 
defending other European peoples and countries against the 
invasion of Asiatic and pagan tyrants. You also know, as 
well as we ourselves, what has parted our people, though 
they are of one blood and language and identical in their 
customs, desires and hopes. You know what has dismem- 
bered our common country, which is not divided by seas, 
by rivers, nor by the frontiers of foreign realms, but indeed 
united and linked together by Divine Providence by the 
mountains, where are born the men who sail your seas and 
form the armies against your enemies and ours. 

" No mutual enmity or strife have parted us, for neither 
our fathers nor our forefathers made war upon one another ; 
nor have selfish needs or interests parted us, for just as we 
need your sea and your seamen, so you require our forests 
and fields, our farmers and soldiers. 

" An alien hand and alien interests have parted us ; an 
alien mind, foreign cunning and policy, have parted the sons 
of one mother, have separated the lands that belonged 
together, and have undermined all national happiness which 
can only blossom and expand in national unity and concord. 

206 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

" Brothers, Dalmatians, countrymen ! After long centuries 
the opportunity has come by which our neighbouring nations, 
akin in every respect, can once more be drawn together 
and become united as completely as possible. 

" You were at one time strong by your maritime com- 
merce, and strong in j^our own house by your spirit and 
intellect. Dalmatia boasted illustrious statesmen, divines, 
men of letters, artists, warriors and sailors, who were the 
pride and ornament of your land and ours. Time, however, 
has enfeebled you, and you have lost not a little of your 
strength. 

" Therefore you need succour and support in every respect. 
But who, setting aside selfish interest, can offer you this 
support and help so cordially as your own brother ? We 
are ready with all our strength to help you, and we are con- 
vinced that you, out of the nobility of your character, will 
help us according to your strength. 

" Your land, rugged but beautiful Dalmatia, is the mother 
of our nation, the cradle of our glory, the daughter of our 
most glorious national spirit. This we shall never forget ! 

" Far from us be every selfish outlook as regards our new 
union. We do not desire to infringe your liberty, your cus- 
toms, your autonomy. Every man holds dear what is his, 
and not even a brother dare lay hands upon it, if he desires 
to keep brotherly love alive. 

" Far from us be the thought of inducing you to accept 
our customs, our laws, or our people as officials or masters. 
We have no intention of ever subjecting you to a military 
administration such as that to which part of our nation on 
this side of the Velebit is subjected. 

" Our sole desire is that Dalmatia too shall win back her 
ancient constitution and her ancient liberties like ourselves ; 
that from henceforth we should discuss together the various 
matters that concern us, that we may be of equal strength 
in our wishes and in every enterprise which may redound 
to the advantage of our country. In other words, we wish 
to strengthen our nation by uniting our forces, so that it may 
in every respect obtain the greatest possible advantages. 

" And as for you, our brothers of Italian speech, who call 
Dalmatia your mother-country, do not look upon us Croats 
as your enemies. It is not in the least our purpose to inter- 

207 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

fere with your language, your customs, your rights and your 
institutions. Our rights and liberties are sacred to us, and 
for that very reason we must hold yours sacred likewise. 

" We look upon you as the happy intermediaries between 
our Slav nation and artistic Italy, to whom our littoral and 
that of Dalmatia are indebted for so much good. 

"At a time when our people sacrificed all its strength in 
sanguinary conflicts on the Turkish frontiers, you from your 
cities on the coast helped unceasingly to diffuse among our 
nation the artistic treasure amassed in time of peace in 
lands more fortunate ; you scattered much good seed among 
us, and for this we are grateful to you, because it is not the 
custom of the Slav to be ungrateful. 

" We hold the language of Dante, Petrarch, Tasso and 
Ariosto in high honour, even as you love it yourselves ; but 
at the same time, following the example of your nation, we 
hold it to be a sacred duty to raise our melodious language 
also to that degree of importance and culture which is occupied 
by your own rich and beautiful tongue. 

" Re-enter then, O Dalmatian brothers, into closer ties 
with ourselves, to whatever language or religion you belong ; 
do not hate those whom we invite as free men to confer with 
us for your and our advantage ; but remember that concord, 
love and a frank word have often saved kingdoms and people, 
while disunion and rancour have always brought about ruin." 

Simultaneously Bishop Strossmayer, the soul of 
every great political movement in the Serbo-Croat 
people, addressed a letter to the Ragusan patrician 
Marino Giorgi (4th January, 1861), in which he in- 
sisted upon the eminently international character 
of the projected "union, which will secure for us an 
influence upon the Eastern Question, and in the en- 
franchisement of our hapless brothers who for so 
many centuries and in spite of the efforts of European 
diplomacy, have been groaning under the harsh yoke 
of the Turks. Providence has reserved for us the 
role of Liberators, and of this the cruel hand of the 

208 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

stranger shall not deprive us, should God and fortune 
favour us." 

Schmerling, however, was on the watch. How 
could the most powerful, the most Centralist, the 
most German of the Austrian Ministers ever have 
permitted the realization of a programme which 
would have henceforth secured the majority to the 
Slavs and to Federalism in Austria ? Federalist 
influences, considerations prompted by the critical 
state of the Near Eastern Question, a certain confused 
feeling in Hungary that it would be wiser to return 
to the broad and federal policy of the House of Anjou 
and even the Arpads, who never knew anything of 
the stupid, iron-bound Centralization aimed at by 
their degenerate successors — all conspired to steer 
the Monarchy towards Federalism. But Schmerling, 
with his host of highly paid officials trained to the 
most servile adoration of the State, had the last 
word. So cunningly did he manoeuvre that it 
appeared as if the refusal of the Dalmatians to confer 
with the Croats upon the question of union were 
the direct outcome of the popular will. The Dalmatian 
Communes had been invited to pronounce upon 
the Croat proclamation. But, though the Southern 
Communes enthusiastically accepted the proposal 
to nominate delegates for Zagreb, Ragusa and the 
Bocche di Cattaro were opposed by the united 
forces of Spalato and Zara, where the bureau- 
cracy was powerfully entrenched. Otherwise the 
Communes of Central and Northern Dalmatia, al- 
though largely in the hands of Autonomist and 
Italianist elements, would not have dared to put 
themselves in direct opposition to the Unionist 
current which was beginning to pervade the country. 

209 o 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Finally, avoiding the main point of the question, 
the final decision was referred to the Diet, which 
was shortly to be convoked, and which on April 18th, 
1861, definitely refused the proposed Conference of 
Zagreb. 

The impression produced by this resolution in 
Zagreb and every other centre of Serbo-Croat life 
between the Drave and the Adriatic was disastrous. 
The Dalmato-Croatian union had already found 
symbolical expression in the Croatian capital on 13th 
April, i860, the opening day of the Diet — practically 
the Constituent Assembly — of Croatia. In the 
hall that had re-echoed of yore to cries of " War 
on the Magyars," two illustrious Dalmatians took 
their places as Croatian deputies, Count Nicholas 
Pozza for the historic city of Krizevci, and the 
Spalatan poet Luka Botic for the College of Djakovo, 
the episcopal see of Mgr. Strossmayer. Two other 
Dalmatians, Count Orsato Pozza and Stephen 
Ivicevic assisted the President of the Diet as honorary 
members, and other political men from Dalmatia 
(Milic, Pavlinovic, Tripkovic, Klaic) attended the 
sitting in the semicircular arena as " guests of the 
people of Croatia." 

In the presence of the Dalmatian deputies the Diet, 
amidst applause, voted for an Address to the Crown 
(1st May), in which the representatives of the nation 
demanded the union of Dalmatia, Ragusa, Bocche 
di Cattaro and the Quarnero Islands with Croatia- 
Slavonia in one political national unit. Several 
days later (on 8th May) the address was presented 
to the Emperor. Francis Joseph kept silence as 
regards Dalmatia. Indeed, he could not very well 
stultify his own work. For the resolution passed 

210 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

by the Dalmatian Diet was in fact only the direct 
outcome of his policy. 

The decision of the Diet of 1861 was simply an 
Austrian Centralist decree, reinforced by Autonomist 
memories. The latter were subsequently most in- 
genuously exploited by Tommased who, inaccurately 
informed and far from his native land, failed to 
perceive that his polemics only served to consolidate 
that anti-Liberal, Centralist and fiercely anti-Slav 
campaign against which he himself had fought all 
his life ! 

This Diet was elected on the basis of a franchise 
which assigned only twenty deputies to 400,000 
inhabitants, while allowing twenty-one to 20,000 ! 
Under the pressure exercised by Schmerling, the 
Majority consisted of twelve Government officials, five 
priests, five ex-Mayors (elected under the old electoral 
law, which left them directly subordinate to the 
political authorities), three landed proprietors, two 
advocates and a notary. 

Dalmatia was in a state of political dry-rot. 
Old survivals of the Venetian era, new Black-and- 
Yellow bureaucracy, which was in reality even more 
antiquated, a little communal sentimentality, a 
little romanticism d la Aleardi and Vittorelli — all 
this barred the way to the Nationalist forces. As 
for the latter, after this first defeat, as after their 
first great victory in 1870, they ought unquestionably 
to have insisted less on the purely political aspect 
of the union and rather tried to conclude an alliance 
with the Liberal Italianist elements, which already 
fully realized the impossibility of persevering in a 
purely negative policy, fatal to the most vital interests 
of Dalmatia. 

211 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

As misfortune would have it, the leadership of 
the National party passed from the hands of Klaic, 
a man with the qualities of a true statesman — 
moderate and liberal, open to all the currents 
of the time and possessing the necessary conciliatory 
spirit — and came under the direction of the Clerical 
section, headed by the deputy Father Pavlinovic, 
a distinguished patriot, but dogmatic and intolerant, 
as even the most admirable Churchmen have usually 
shown themselves in the management of public 
affairs. 

This Clerical section laid exaggerated stress upon 
the campaign for union with Croatia, to the obvious 
detriment of an understanding with the honest 
Autonomists and with the Serb wing of the National 
party. They showed themselves uncompromising 
and intolerant towards all who did not fully agree, 
not merely as regards the principle, but even the 
tactical expediency of the union, and towards those 
who refused to accept one-sided absorption and the 
consequent renunciation of all the ancient municipal 
rights of Dalmatia. Thus the spirit by which the 
splendid National movement of the 'sixties was 
imbued, and which animated the Manifesto of 
the Zagreb Conference, ceased to pervade the deli- 
berations of its leaders. The struggle between the 
rival conceptions of Autonomy and Croat Neo- 
Centralism grew more and more bitter. 

To these tactical mistakes was added a violent 
reaction against the Italian language, especially 
in the scholastic world. We have seen that this 
reaction was really due to the treacherous policy 
of those who, while professing themselves Slavs 
with their lips, by their deeds in a thousand ways 

212 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

obstructed the development of the Slav language 
and nationality of Dalmatia in all forms of public 
life. It is impossible to forbid a people, which 
after long foreign domination has just arrived at 
a consciousness of its national individuality, the 
right to an increased study and practical employ- 
ment of the national language. Tommaseo and others 
with him had pointed to the terminological deficiency 
of Serbo-Croat in order to justify " provisionally " the 
absolute predominance of a fully developed idiom 
like Italian. It was thus a question of gaining two 
points. Firstly, to demonstrate that Serbo-Croat 
(to which Tommaseo had paid the highest possible 
tribute in his writings I ), though perhaps not suitable 
for the loftiest discussions of Kantian philosophy, 
was nevertheless amply sufficient for the civil and 
literary needs of a people which was a late arrival 
upon the stage of European history ; and at the 
same time to proclaim the unimpeachable rights of 
the language, as the most visible and most eloquent 
outward sign of the ethnic character of the nation. 
That to this day every educated person in Dalmatia 
speaks Italian and boasts — with good cause — of 
being in part a product of Italian culture, is no 
reason for forcing upon the country an ethnical 
physiognomy which is not its own, by confusing 

x See Secondo Esilio, i. p. 153-154 : " The purest language, the 
most full-toned and the most harmonious, is Serbian as spoken in 
Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia, less correctly in Croatia 
and other parts of the Austrian Empire, and finally by the Hun- 
garian Slavs. . . . And the reason why Serbian is so complete a 
language is this : that the Slavs, coming from Asia, could not 
have penetrated so far, if they had not been the first, and because 
the Serbian|race, by the virile beauty of its lineaments, proves the 
nobility of its origin. ..." Many similar extracts could be given. 

213 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

civilization with nationality. Slav civilization has 
made such strides that what could be said even of 
our fathers is no longer true ; and moreover, what 
would Europe, and even Italy, have thought of the 
Dalmatian people, if it had docilely continued to 
cultivate the Italian language to the detriment of 
its mother-tongue ? 

However, all these mistakes cannot justify the 
altogether negative policy of the Autonomist (now 
the Italian) party in Dalmatia, nor its persistent 
hostility to the native tongue of the Dalmatian 
people. The status quo is at the best an expedient, 
not an idea. 



214 



CHAPTER V 

Austrian persecution of Slav Unionist party in Dalmatia — The 
Austrian Government finds efficacious support in the Autono- 
mist party — Gradual weakening of the conflict between the 
Slavs and the Italian party — Schemes for reconciliation on 
the basis of a recognition of the Slav character of Dalmatia. 

The feeble strand of Italian life in Dalmatia is 
doomed to sink quietly into the grave of historic 
memories. The political elements whence the Italian 
party derives its origin, the forces to which it owes 
its existence, are so slender and in such crying con- 
trast to the full-blooded social and moral life of the 
land which harbours it, that it would not be worth 
while to devote our attention to it, were we not 
forced to do so by the artificial propaganda originat- 
ing from the opposite shores of the Adriatic. This 
propaganda is armed with all the usual terrors of 
the ancien regime, viz. strategic frontiers, inevitable 
predominance, in short, with the whole arsenal of 
arguments to which the world owes the hecatombs 
of victims of the late conflagration. 

Three cardinal facts should be borne in mind, 
which are inseparably bound up with the life of the 
party which obstinately ignores the rights of the 
nation to whose long-suffering patience it owes its 
precarious existence. 

215 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

I. Italian irredentism was and is an absolutely 
unknown growth in Dalmatia. The idea of a cession 
of Dalmatia to Italy never occurred to the minds 
of the Autonomist party ; not even to the younger 
generation. In this Dalmatia differs materially 
from Trieste, from Trento and from certain isolated 
townships in the Istrian Peninsula. In its issue of 
7th January, 1861, the Gazzetta di Fiume — the only 
Italian organ besides the Voce Dalmatica, which 
since i860 has dealt in outspoken fashion with 
the problems of political equilibrium in Dalmatia 
and which was fiercely opposed to the union of 
Dalmatia with Croatia — expressed the views of all 
Italian-speaking Dalmatians in the following signi- 
ficant words : 

" Finally it would be a fatal mistake to listen to those 
false insinuations which would make us believe that Dal- 
matia, through the intermediary of its Italian element, is 
in aii3 r way nursing within herself a tendency towards an 
eventual union with Italy. We consider the Dalmatians 
too sensible to credit them with the desire of becoming a 
kind of colony, and of adopting Italy as their mother without 
any necessity. 

" To those politicians who already see Dalmatia swallowed 
up by the Italian avalanche, we would say that the width 
of the Adriatic is sufficient to nullify its impetus entirely. 
... If the English Channel, the Rhine, and the Danube 
suffice to keep separate those who ought to be separated, 
the broad arm of the Adriatic will not be less efficacious in 
confining Italian aspirations. 

" The future of Dalmatia is quite independent of that of 
Italy. In a far distant, but none the less certain, future 
Dalmatia will prosper when the peoples of Bosnia and 
Herzegovina enter the European comity of nations, and 
find in Dalmatia their natural seaboard. All Dalmatia's 
interests gravitate towards the Balkan rather than the 
Appenine Peninsula." 

216 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The explicit declarations of the heads of the 
Autonomist party, from Bajarnonti and Lapenna 
to the rank and file of Zaratine Italianism, are abun- 
dantly clear as to the inseparability of Dalmatia 
and her destinies from those of her Slav hinterland. 
This conviction was moreover shared in Italy by 
Tommaseo, Cavour, Mazzini, Correnti, Mamiani, 
Ricasoli, Gino Capponi, Garibaldi and indeed — 
more or less openly — by the most balanced minds 
in contemporary Italy. Our assertion concerning 
the non-existence of a Dalmatian irredentism is 
borne out by the explicit declarations of Luigi 
Ziliotto, advocate, leader of the Young Italo- 
Dalmatian party and Mayor of Zara, who solemnly 
declared at a sitting of the Diet in 1896 : 

" How can we, divided from Italy by the entire Adriatic, 
a poor few thousands scattered without territorial continuity 
among a people not of hundreds of thousands, but of millions 
of Slavs — how can we, I say, think of union with Itaty ? " * 

II. As we have seen, the Autonomist party declared 
itself Slav, and Dalmatia likewise. But it was 
above all things Austrophil and, except during the 
Liberal intermezzo, it always looked to the Govern- 
ment for support. The latter protected it energeti- 
cally, not only up to 1870, but up to our own days, 
though compelled by the irresistible Slav tide to 

1 Prezzolini, from whose book on Dalmatia we have drawn this 
quotation, derived originally from the Short Dalmatian Notes 
of the Vice-President of the Dante-Alighieri Society, Count Donato 
Samminiatelli (Nuova Antologia, June i, 1897), adds the following 
comment : " This shows conclusively that Signer Ziliotto recognized 
the union of the Slav people of Dalmatia with that of its hinterland ; 
otherwise he would not have spoken of millions of Slavs." 
Prezzolini, op. cit. p. 44, No. 2. 

217 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

yield from time to time to the legitimate demands 
put forward by the National party. 

About this time there began that campaign of 
denunciation, prosecutions for high treason, political 
trials and electoral abuses whereby every small Slav 
success in Slav Dalmatia might be likened to those 
few yards of trenches which the Allied Armies at 
untold cost succeeded in wresting from the Germans. 
It cannot be denied that this campaign was carried 
on with the connivance or at the suggestion of the 
Autonomist party, which was represented in the 
Imperial Parliament by a clique of officials, protected 
by the Government itself. It was at the height of 
its power in Dalmatia between i860 and 1874, with 
every inducement to fight for the retention of its 
oligarchic power. It is a great mistake to believe 
that the political trials and prosecutions of the 
National Slav Idea are a growth of yesterday, and 
that the trials of Zagreb, Vienna and Banjaluka 
were without precedent in Serbo-Croat history. And 
it was precisely Dalmatia which had to suffer most 
hardly under political persecutions, originating with 
the Italianizing bureaucracy, which sought to con- 
solidate its own predominance by representing 
the Slav National party to Vienna as the advance 
guard of the Panslav and Panserb movements and as 
plotting to detach the Jugoslav provinces from the 
Austrian realm. The most notable cases of political 
persecution in Dalmatia were the Cavtat (Ragusavec- 
chia) Trial in March 1861, the trial of the editorial 
staff of the Narodni List in Zara in October 1867 ; 
the prosecutions of the National leaders, foremost 
among them Mr. Klaic ; the vexatious measures 
against the Narodna Citaonica of Zara, found guilty 

218 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of conspiring with Garibaldi for the liberation of the 
Slavs from the Turkish yoke ; the " bloody elections " 
of Spalato, Sinj and Knin ; the excesses of the mob 
of Zara, shouting in 1876 for the Turks against the 
Russians, and the invective directed against Serbia 
and Montenegro by the Dalmata. 

The Cavtat Trial made a profound impression 
throughout the Empire. The charge, which was 
altogether trumped up by the Bezirkshauptmann 
of Ragusavecchia, Agazzi, was to the effect that a 
group of electors had inscribed " Union of Dalmatia 
with Croatia " upon their programme. The nine 
defendants — two landed proprietors, two priests 
and five peasants — found an able counsel in the 
Venetian advocate Costi, the Dalmatian lawyers 
having been strictly forbidden to undertake the 
defence of the accused. After fifteen months of 
detention in custody, the accused were acquitted 
— mainly in consequence of a decree wrung by Slav 
indignation from the Vienna Cabinet. 

On this occasion the Croatian Diet sent a special 
deputation of protest, accompanied by Mgr. Stross- 
mayer, to Vienna. 

The political authorities in Dalmatia treated the 
partisans of the union as traitors to the State and 
disturbers of the public peace, although this very 
union had been found desirable by the Crown itself 
in i860. In 1867 the editorial staff of the Narodni 
List was arrested for publishing an article containing 
the following phrase : " Dalmatia, which is situated 
upon the Adriatic shore and must one day become 
the wharf of the Danubian commerce, forms part 
of the Triune Kingdom (Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia)." 
The editors Toncic, Danilo and Matic were each 

219 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

sentenced to six months' imprisonment, for the 
offence of rousing public feeling against the existing 
political bond between Dalmatia and Cisleithania. 

These and other political trials were instigated 
by the governing Autonomist party as the close ally 
of Vienna. In order to make it possible for an exiguous 
Minority to maintain its power, it was necessary to 
conjure up the spectre of Slavism before the eyes 
of the ruling Powers in Vienna. 

But the climax of this disgraceful campaign was 
reached in 1869. In that year the highlanders of 
Bocche di Cattaro (called Krivosije) rebelled against 
the Austrian Government. Contrary to the promises 
made in 1814, not only to the inhabitants of Bocche 
di Cattaro and Ragusa but also to Tsar Alexander I, 
the Austrian Government desired to introduce com- 
pulsory militar}/ service, which had become law 
in 1868. The Krivosije demanded (1) That the 
conscripts called up under the new law should be 
exempt from the obligation of serving outside the 
territory of Bocche di Cattaro ; (2) that after a 
year in barracks they might be permitted to go 
abroad ; and (3) that they might wear the national 
dress instead of the Austrian military uniform. 

The typically Austrian excess of zeal on the part 
of the political and military authorities provoked 
a rising, and the Austrian troops sent to quell it 
were repeatedly defeated in the mountains between 
Risano and Grahovo. 

The epilogue to this insurrection did not take 
place until 1882, when Austria-Hungary, after sup- 
pressing a second revolt, established at enormous 
cost a system of fortifications between Montenegro, 
Herzegovina and Bocche di Cattaro. In the mean- 

220 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

time the insurrection itself was quelled, thanks 
to the intervention of two Dalmatian deputies, 1 
with the Archduke Rainer, Lieutenant-Governor 
of the Empire during Francis Joseph's visit to 
Egypt to attend the opening of the Suez Canal. 
The two deputies obtained the recall of the Governor 
of Dalmatia, General Wagner, a detested martinet, 
whose uncompromising attitude had helped to exas- 
perate the population. 

On 15th January, 1870, his successor, General 
Rodic, concluded an ignominious peace with the 
insurgents at Knezlaz, a village in Krivosije. Austria 
agreed to postpone the recruiting scheme, granted 
a general amnesty and approved the wearing of the 
national dress. 

The secret history of this now forgotten insurrec- 
tion has not yet been written, yet it was a symptom 
of the Near Eastern trouble, and the prologue to 
the movement for Serbian union. But there are 
two points which ought to be remembered. The 
insurrection, whether or not it was provoked by 
Serb irredentists, was certainly hailed with joy by 
Serbia, and more especially by Montenegro, whose 
prince secretly encouraged the insurgents while 
professing himself the vassal of the great neighbouring 
Empire. As for the Dalmatian National party, 
it not only had neither art nor part, directly nor 
indirectly, in the insurrection, but reaped a great 
deal of trouble from it, and even deputed two of its 
most influential members to pacify the insurgents. 3 

1 Count George Vojnovic and Ljubisa. 

2 It may be recalled that when Austria sent Dalmatian troops 
against the insurgents during the second insurrection of Bocche 
di Cattaro {1881-1882), Mr. Klaic, leader of the Croat National 

221 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

This was only natural, since the most elementary 
prudence suggested that it would not do to irritate 
the Austrian Government and so compel it to take 
up a hostile attitude towards the movement for Slav 
emancipation in the province. 

But the Italian Autonomist party could not 
resist the temptation of exploiting the insurrectionary 
movement for its own plans of predominance and 
the consolidation of its position in the favour of the 
Austrian Government — in view of a possible fresh 
appeal to the country. 

Indeed, in the sitting of 19th October, 1869, Mr. 
Lapenna, chief of the Italian Autonomists, read the 
following declaration : 

" The province is passing through a time of great trial. 
Southern Dalmatia is ablaze. And in this Diet, where 
resolutions of defiance towards the Imperial-Royal Govern- 

party in Dalmatia and Deputy in the Vienna Parliament, had 
the courage in the Austrian Delegation to ask the joint Minister 
for War, " how he could justify the dispatch of Serbo-Croat troops 
to fight against their brothers ? " This bold question produced 
a great impression throughout the Empire, and Mr. Klaic owed it 
solely to his immunity as a deputy that he was not prosecuted 
for high treason. It was during this second insurrection that Sir 
Arthur Evans, the distinguished British archaeologist and zealous 
champion of the Jugoslav cause, at that time residing in Ragusa, 
was imprisoned by the Austrian military authorities. A peremptory 
protest from Gladstone procured his release, but the Austrian 
Government expelled him from Ragusa and from the Empire. 
In 1882 Sir Arthur Evans acted as correspondent of the Manchester 
Guardian. He had been denounced to the Austrian Government 
as one of the instigators of the insurrection, and — since then !— 
a rabid enemy of Austria-Hungary. And truly, in his detestation of 
the Dual Monarchy, he was surpassed only by his father-in-law, 
the celebrated historian, Edward Freeman, and by Gladstone 
himself. With reference to the Jugoslav Question, see his essay 
The Slavs of the A driatic and the Continental Route to Constantinople, 
read before the Royal Geographical Society in London. 

222 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ment are proposed, and petitions for the enforcement of 
Article XIX. are presented, an insurrection of the minds is 
likewise seething. 1 Those who have signed the present 
declaration with me have no desire to probe the intention 
of the promoters of the suggestions ; nevertheless it is 
obvious that at so critical a moment they are not compatible 
either with good citizenship or patriotism. The majority 
might easily defeat them, but it has no means of preventing 
their discussion, or of preventing agitations capable of giving 
rise to great trouble in the country. That is why, with a 
view to declining all responsibility, the Majority prays Your 
Majesty to prorogue the Diet. In the meantime, the Majority 
quits the House, convinced that in so doing it is performing 
an act of patriotism, and of fidelity towards its august 
Sovereign." 

Directly after the reading of this document — one 
of the most remarkable instances of sycophancy 
recorded in Austrian parliamentary history — the 
Italian Majority withdrew. 

That very day the Slav Minority, by a Manifesto 
issued in Zara, protested proudly against the insinua- 
tion that there was any relation between the insurrec- 
tion of Bocche di Cattaro and the purely parliamen- 

1 Article XIX. of the Fundamental Constitutional Law of 
1867 guarantees equal rights for all nationalities in the Empire, 
and was included in order to mitigate the disastrous effect of the 
Dualism and to deceive the nationalities by a legal procedure. 
The Italian party ought, in its own properly conceived interests, 
to have promoted national concord by insisting upon the strict 
application of Article XIX. But conscious of representing an 
exiguous minority in the country, it obstinately refused to assist in 
the practical application of this principle of equity and justice, 
although expressed in a vague and inconclusive fashion. The 
allusion in the above-quoted declaration refers to the fact that 
210 petitions bearing 4,000 signatures had been presented to the 
Diet (some of them by M. Pavlinovic) demanding the strict enforce- 
ment of Article XIX. These petitions were never discussed, but 
simply pigeon-holed by the Petitions Committee, which was 
mainly Italian in composition. 

223 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tarian activity of the National party. The President 
convoked the Diet for 28th October, but only the 
Minority attended. Owing to the fact that the 
regulation number of members was not present, 
the Diet was prorogued by an Imperial rescript, 
and the new elections, as we have seen, took place 
before the year was out. The Italian party gained 
nothing by its advances to the Government : for 
the popular verdict finally swept away its fictitious 
majority. 

III. We have seen that the Slav Autonomist party 
became transformed into an Italian party only 
by very slow degrees. Not until 1874, and then 
only very timidly, was an " Italian nationality " 
spoken of in Dalmatia. A scattered nucleus of 
certainly not more than 5,000 individuals had 
preserved its existence in several Dalmatian coast 
towns by dint of rigid exclusiveness, by an effect 
of intellectual snobbery. It had never taken root 
in the country and, nationally speaking, it was 
suspended in space : but at the elections its ranks 
were swelled — until the advent of Universal Suffrage 
— by elements economically dependent upon this 
small landowning oligarchy bound to disappear 
before the withering blast of popular franchise. 

The truly Italian element in Dalmatia consists 
of a few hundred descendants of Italian immigrant 
families. A very few immigrated in the fourteenth 
century, all the rest are more recent arrivals of the 
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 
Some of these — and by no means the least noble — 
adopted the nationality of the country in which they 
had made their home. The great majority of the 
Italo-Dalmatians are Slavs of the purest stock who, 

224 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

confusing the ideas of civilization and nationality, 
educated abroad and in Italian surroundings, soon 
learn to despise the rugged and far less brilliant 
Slav culture of their fathers. And they call themselves 
Italians, because to be Italians and claim to be 
countrymen of Dante and Petrarch, and to imagine 
themselves in some kind of racial kinship with the 
red bands of Mazzini and Garibaldi, was not only 
fashionable but stamped the individual as belonging 
to a " superior race." Even among the fathers of 
these men there were several who, perhaps from 
personal motives, deserted from the Slav camp after 
having helped to found Slav literary and political 
societies in Zara itself. 1 

A very small number of families of Italian origin, 
most of them immigrants of very recent date, and 
the group of Young Italian Autonomists, composed 
chiefly of the sons of Slav fathers (Giljanovic, Medovic, 
Nakic, Bozic, Smerkinic, etc.), have provided the 
foundation for an edifice which does not collapse 
simply because it was part of an amorphous and 
anational Empire. 

The so-called Italian vote in Dalmatia is recruited 
chiefly from among the Coloni — debtors and Slav 
clients, who are compelled by lack of means to vote 
for their masters. The latter, moreover, in their 
presence call themselves Slavs, as did their fathers 
before them. The various societies, reading-rooms 
and other centres owe their existence mainly to 
people of no particular political conviction, unconscious 

1 In Appendix IV. the reader will find a short summary of the 
political life of Zara from 1848 to our own time. This account 
is necessarily incomplete, but we trust it will serve to dissipate 
the legend of the " Italian citadel " in Dalmatia. 

225 P 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

adepts in the snobbery we have mentioned, to the 
numerous officials attached to the old Autonomist 
traditions, and to the large numbers of immigrants 
from the kingdom, workmen, small manufacturers, 
etc. Finally there is the school, this great institution 
which is represented to the Italian people as the 
lighthouse left standing after the shipwreck of 
Dalmatia's " Italianity," and which is, on the contrary, 
a paradoxical proof of the Slav nature of the country. 
For these Italian pupils are, for the greater part, 
recruited from among poor Serb and Croat children, 
whose parents are tempted by gifts of clothing, 
household utensils, etc., and by pecuniary assistance. 
Such parents consent to send their children to the 
schools of the Italian Lega Kazionale or the Dante 
Alighieri Society, in order to derive material advantage 
and incidentally to provide their children with " an 
extra language." Meantime, out of school, the 
children speak only Serbo-Croat among themselves. 
Meanwhile it is significant that certain families of 
truly Italian origin and sentiment prefer to send 
their children to the Serbo-Croat schools, thereby 
showing their realization of the true situation, and 
the futility of their Dantesque pose. 1 

Signor Barzilai was right when he affectionately 
exhorted the Adriatic Irredentists not to forget 
the services of the Dante Alighieri Society. 

" The latter," wrote the Irredentist Deputy, " has for 
years provided material and moral support for the un- 

1 In the session of the Diet of 1903, Dr. Trumbid, Deputy for 
Spalato, produced a list of the names of children attending the 
school of the Lega Nazionale in Spalato. From this list it trans- 
pired that the scholars were called Duplancid, Trumbid, Razmilovic, 
etc. ; all being sons of poor Slavs living in the suburbs of the town. 

226 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

fortunate Italian lands whose liberty, language, customs 
and soul Austria has combated by every kind of device, and 
furnished them with the means of saving their name and 
character, and their faith in their own destiny and ours." 

It is indeed true that without the large subsidies 
of the Dante Alighieri, the schools of the Lega 
Nazionale would have never arisen in the Slav 
towns of Dalmatia. For instance, it would have 
been impossible to raise 15,000 crowns by a ball 
given by the Lega Nazionale in Zara, a town of 
14,000 inhabitants, mostly officials. Nor would its 
Zara branch alone have been able to collect 56,810 
crowns in the single year of 1912. 

All these exotic features will disappear as if by 
magic and without compulsion on the day when the 
Serbo-Croat nation is its own master and when Dal- 
matia re-enters the community of Slav nations. 
The beneficent influence of Italian culture will cer- 
tainly continue to assert itself so long as it abstains 
from encroaching upon the Slav soul of the country ; 
but the artificial propaganda, the ultimate product 
of the Austrian system, will sink into oblivion, to 
the great advantage of the good name of the Italian 
people and its civilizing mission in Eastern Europe. 
And after the collapse of this edifice, reared on a 
confusion between culture and nationality, Jugoslav 
democracy will be able to inaugurate a broad-minded 
and generous policy. 

The Slavs of Dalmatia would certainly not feel 
inclined to accord extraordinary privileges to this 
handful of Italians, were they not fully conscious 
of the fundamental difference between civilization 
and nationality. Not as a right, but for the sake 
of the high value of Italian civilization, to which 

227 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the Dalmatian people owes so much of its own 
national development, the sovereign people of Dal- 
matia would wish to preserve within just limits 
the use of the Italian language and the study of 
Italian history and literature. Without special 
protection, however, these would certainly perish. 

In the early years of the twentieth century, the 
struggle gradually lost its initial violence. Passions 
were allayed, and a new generation was glad to forget 
the bitter fights that raged more particularly in 
Zara between 1880 and 1900, and preferred to 
remember the golden days from '6o to '66, when the 
Fathers of the Slav Risorgimento had eloquently 
formulated not only the rights of the nation, but its 
grateful respect for a culture which can and must 
continue its beneficent mission as the incentive and 
faithful companion of the Jugoslav thought. 

And what was there to prevent the possibility of 
a peaceable understanding between the Italianist 
Minority and the Slav Majority ? No foreign ele- 
ment interfered between the sons of one nation. 
Sundered by no ethnical or political gulfs, but by 
a simple misunderstanding which had lost its sig- 
nificance in face of the rapid development of the 
Jugoslav national conscience, the Dalmatians of 
both parties had a clear field before them. There 
was no Italian irredentism in Dalmatia. This plant, 
as we have seen, never succeeded in taking root irr~ 
Dalmatian soil. And this is the primary, the domi- 
nant and decisive fact which, supported by masses of 
evidence, pointed out the way to an understanding 
Therefore it was not only expedient but just that 
every possible concession compatible with the un- 
contested Slav national sovereignty should be made 

228 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in favour of that Italian culture which is so beloved 
and even revered in Dalmatia. 

From the numerous instances of these Liberal views 
of the Slav Majority, I will only quote the following. 
During the session which preceded the European 
War, the Slav Majority (thirty-six Slavs against six 
Italians, elected by restricted franchise) decided to 
request the Imperial Government that the degrees 
taken by Dalmatians at Italian universities should 
be recognized in Austria. This motion was bound up 
with another demand of old standing, that the degrees 
taken by Dalmatians at the Croat Universitjf of 
Zagreb should be recognized in Austria, Zagreb, in 
virtue of the Dualist system of the Monarchy, being- 
considered a foreign university. Till quite recently 
the Government obstinately refused to recognize 
the degrees obtained by Cisleithanians at an institu- 
tion which bears the name of the " Francis Joseph 
University," belonging to a State forming part 
of the same Monarchy. The refusal of the Govern- 
ment was one more obvious proof of the obvious 
fear on the part of the Austrian Government lest 
a closer union should be established between the 
members of one and the same nation. It also 
provided a fresh and eloquent refutation of the legend 
current in Italy that the Jugoslav nation enjoyed 
the protection of Austria ! By demanding equal 
recognition for the Italian and Croatian degrees, 
the Slav Majority was risking its chances of success 
with regard to the Croatian degrees, since it is 
obviously easie: to obtain concessions in a purely 
internal matter than in one of international bearing. 
The essential point is that the Majority did not stand 
in need of the six Italian votes in order to pass the 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

motion concerning the Zagreb degrees. Its object 
was to appeal to the whole Diet, regardless of party 
distinction, to present a united front to the German 
invasion. At the same time, moved by a generous 
and idealistic impulse, it desired to confer native 
rights upon Italian culture in Dalmatia. 

At one moment the Italian party appeared to 
understand the motives of the Slavs, but unfortu- 
nately only for a moment. Inconsolable at having 
lost the absolute and oligarchic control over six 
hundred thousand Dalmato-Slavs, the party returned 
to its negative policy of coquetting with the German 
Austrians, and continued to fill the world through 
the medium of the Neue Freie Presse with lamenta- 
tions over an imaginary oppression. The Slav party, 
however, did not give up the idea of conciliation. 

In 1905, Deputy Smodlaka, leader of the young 
but vigorous Democratic party in Dalmatia, voiced 
the feelings of all Dalmatians by offering peace to 
the Italo-Dalmatians in the following words : 

" This country is a Slav country, and we are all bound 
to fight for its national and political rights (a declaration 
almost identical with Bajamonti's). Once this principle 
is admitted, it will be easy to come to an understanding with 
the Italians for the preservation, within just limits, of the 
Italian language." 

In keeping with these generous words, a first 
great result was obtained in 1910 by the agreement 
regarding the use of Italian in the centres of the 
Dalmatian littoral. The agreement was signed by 
several Italian party leaders who are to-day fighting 
in the ranks of those who refuse to accord the 
Dalmatian people the right of free self-determination. 

230 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The lessons of 1905 — the year of reconciliation 
between the Serbs and Croats and of rapprochement 
between the Italian party and the Serbo-Croat 
Coalition ; of 1908, the year of the great awakening of 
the Serb Idea, provoked by Austria's rape of Bosnia- 
Herzegovina ; of 1912, the year of the Balkan 
resurrection, which was hailed in Dalmatia as the 
dawn of the victory of the principle of union — 
are so great and so manifold that the conflicts which 
we have summarized in these pages, must hence- 
forth belong to past history. 

But there is one thing which does not belong to 
history, or rather is an eternal part of it — like a 
fruitful reality linking the past with the present and 
future, and interwoven with the web of Dalmatian 
life. This is the Idea, the National Conscience, the 
belief in the indissoluble and sacred ties that bind 
Dalmatia to the Slav thought, to the cause of Serbo- 
Croat Independence and Unity. 

To this dominant idea, revealed as by fitful flashes 
of light throughout the centuries, and consecrated 
by the voice of the people during a long succession 
of legislative sessions, I propose to devote — from 
a different aspect — the concluding chapter. 



231 



CHAPTER VI 

Serbo-Croat policy in the Habsburg Monarchy — Split in the Slav 
National party — Clericals and Liberals — Unanimous procla- 
mation of the national unity of the Serb and Croat race — 
Attitude of Bajamonti — His declarations on the Serbo-Balkan 
position — Political differences between Serbs and Croats — 
Croatia and Serbia in the past — Joint action of Serbs and 
Croats in historical crises — Croats and Serbs in the Battle of 
Kosovo (1389) — Serbo-Croat union in 1848 — Bishop Stross- 
mayer — The Slav liturgy in Dalmatia — Serbo-Croat tribute 
to the Ragusan poet Gundulid, the prophet of National unity 
(1892) — National ballads in Dalmatia — Migrations and inter- 
minglings — Decisive influence of Serbia on the Jugoslav 
movement under Prince Michael Obrenovic (1866) — Moral 
adhesion of Dalmatia — Serbo-Croat Unionist programme 
outlined in the Florentine review, Nuova Antologia, by Count 
Orsato Pozza (1866) — Indifferent or hostile attitude of New 
Italy towards the Jugoslav movement — The voice of the dead. 

In view of the condition of the Habsburg Monarchy 
from i860 to 1914, the Dalmatian people, repre- 
sented by an overwhelming Majority both in the 
Diet of the kingdom and in the Central Parliament 
in Vienna, had to choose between two courses. 
It could either follow the line of compromise with 
the actual state of affairs in the Monarchy, or it 
could choose that of uncompromising Radicalism 
and consistent parliamentary abstention, as prac- 
tised for a short time by the Czech National party 
under the leadership of Ladislas Rieger. The 
Majority preferred the quieter and more conven- 

232 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tional path, rather than join in a supreme effort 
of all the Slavs in the Empire to enforce the 
transformation of the pernicious Dualist system 
into a sane Federalism. Still, in the minds of the 
members of the National party, every party, every 
programme tending to re-group in one political 
unit the lands of kindred race and identical speech 
existing within the boundaries of the Empire, was 
looked upon as a minimum programme, a mere 
stage on the road towards a greater national unifi- 
cation. This line of evolutionary tactics found a 
fierce opponent, both in Croatia and Dalmatia, in 
the Clerical party, which desired to see the union 
between these two countries adopted as the final 
solution. This section, led by Pavlinovic in Dalmatia 
and by Starcevic' in Croatia, laboured with all its 
might to eliminate the powerful Serbo-Orthodox 
wing from the National party. Before the eyes of 
the Croats it conjured up the mirage of an Autono- 
mous Kingdom under Habsburg Sovereignty, a kind 
of Jugoslav Poland, which, by attracting all the 
Catholic elements of the nation, would oppose a 
solid front to Orthodoxy as represented by the 
independent Balkan Principality of Serbia. But 
even if this solution had been realized by the much 
mooted Habsburg Trialism, it would certainly not 
have stifled the movement towards unification ; for 
it embodied an altogether too ingenuous attempt to 
divide the soul of a people and to separate it forcibly 
from the more vigorous and more democratic section 
of the race. But it might have retarded the union, 
and for at least a generation realized the Magyar- 
German ideal of a system of Slav Marches as bulwarks 
against Russia — under the auspices of Berlin. 

233 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Fortunately Austria, after the Battle of Sadowa, 
showed herself persistently hostile to any kind of 
solution of the Serbo-Croat problem by granting 
autonomy. The Germano-Magyar Dual system 
applied itself all the more energetically to the task 
of frustrating every attempt at union between the 
different members of the same race. The intentions 
attributed to the Austrian heir-apparent of rallying 
the Jugoslavs under the black-and-yellow banner, 
were cut short by a Serbian revolver, and with the 
Serbo- Austrian War of 19 14 the fatal problem passed 
from the Chancelleries, the Parliamentary clubs 
and Law Courts to the blood-drenched battlefields 
of a Europe in arms. 

From the moment when Serbian statesmen realized 
the peril to which the idea of unification was exposed 
by the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1908), 
they fiercely opposed the new Croat programme, 
which differed so greatly from the programme 
adopted by the two races in 1861. 

Once annexed to Austria-Hungary, Bosnia-Herze- 
govina, it was thought, could not fail, thanks to 
the fanatical propaganda of the Catholic clergy, to 
press Serbia back across the Drina, perhaps for 
ever. Serbia would continue to vegetate in a round 
of futile parochial feuds, her mentality and the 
spirit of her administration becoming more and 
more Orientalized ; and in the end she would be 
bound to follow the rest of the Serbo-Croat lands 
into Austro-Hungarian vassalage and would fall 
with them, a victim to the Drang nach Osten. 

In the Croat wing of the National party there 
were a few clear-sighted individuals, deeply imbued 
with the purely Slav Idea, who rebelled from the 

234 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

outset against this course. In the very year of 
the Congress of Berlin and the occupation of 
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Klaid wrote from Ragusa 
(20th January, 1878) to Biankini : 

" We are not going to oppose the occupation, as we cannot 
hinder it if it has really been decreed by the Powers. But 
we must adopt a passive attitude towards this event until 
we see what it may bring forth. If the annexation is carried 
out in a national sense, i.e. with the object of liberating the 
population and uniting it with ourselves, we shall approve 
of it ; but even in that case we shall not applaud it. But 
if the annexation of Bosnia is simply to bear the Austrian 
hall-mark, if it is to be an Austrian enterprise, we shall raise 
our voices ; in other words, we shall deplore the disappearance 
of Turkish rule." 

But these lofty ideas of the leader of the Slav 
Majority in Dalmatia were not shared by the whole 
of the Croat party. Under the influence of Austro- 
Magyar agents, the Croats of Starcevic's party even 
applauded the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina 
and its annexation (then believed to be imminent) 
as the final act of a Croat evolution, destined to 
raise a half-clerical, half-national barrier against 
the influence of Orthodox Serbia. But while this 
struggle — the deplorable heritage of the past — was 
yet proceeding, the minds of the two opposing groups 
were already subconsciously beginning to harbour 
the idea of the new age, the idea of Unity, as it had 
already been conceived by many distinguished 
personalities of Serbia, Dalmatia and Croatia. 

The great Croat historian Ra£ki wrote : 

" The Croats say frankly to the Serbs : ' We are not 
troubled by dreams of supremacy. You cannot speak of 
supremacy as regard the different sections of one people. 

235 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

If you feel yourselves able to achieve the necessary action, 
do it, and we shall all follow you. The Drina lies before 
you : God bless your banners when they cross it with 
you ! ' " 

And at the time when the struggle against the 
forces protected by the Vienna Camarilla was at 
its height, Thaddeus SmiCiklas, the second President 
of the Jugoslav Academy in Zagreb (founded by 
the great Bishop Strossmayer), did not hesitate to 
declare : 

" The Serbs and Croats are one people. This supreme 

principle is reverenced by all sons of our nation, and the 

national ideal must find its loftiest expression in political 
unity." 

This programme of Unity in its integrity, which 
was imperilled by projects for a separate Croatia, 
was stoutly upheld by a Serb Catholic party in 
Ragusa and Spalato. The idea of "' nationality 
independent of creed " formed the programme of 
this party, which in 1902 saw the more or less inter- 
national triumph of its principles, when the Holy 
See endorsed the Jugoslav standpoint in the matter 
of the College of St. Jerome. 1 

1 To identify the Croat element with Catholicism and the Serb 
with Orthodoxy, has always been the fundamental principle of 
the strategy of divide et impera as applied by Austria to our race. 
In 1 90 1 the Holy See was invited to range itself on the side of those 
politicians who advocated the division of the Serbo-Croat people 
into Catholic and Orthodox, Occidentals and Orientals. Upon 
the suggestion of several Croatian bishops, led by the fanatically 
Austrophil Archbishop of Sarajevo, Mgr. Stadler, Pope Leo XIII, 
by his brief Slavorum Gentem, transformed the Illyrian College of 
St. Jerome in Rome (founded in the fifteenth century for the 
benefit of pilgrims from Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia and the Serbian 
diocese of Antivari) into a Croat college. This action greatly 
disturbed the Serbs. Montenegro, which was bound by a con- 

236 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The Serbian papers Srpski List, of Zara, and the 
Dubrovnik, of Ragusa, waged a radical campaign 
against the separatist programme. To the argu- 
ments of a narrow parochialism they opposed the 
wider vision of the past, common to both sections 
of the nation. It was the eternal struggle of centri- 
petal against centrifugal tendencies, the struggle of 
Unionism against Autonomism, transplanted among 
the unionist champions of yesterday. The truth 
is, that, fundamentally, both political parties desired 
the same thing. The over-development of the 
parochial ego was bound to lead to the realization 
of identity of blood, language and aspirations in 
the two parts of one whole. The struggle reduced 
itself to a conflict between two tactics, invested 
with a spurious appearance of inherent incompati- 
bility as between two worlds by the latent and 
implacable duel between the Drang nach Osten, 
and Serbia's policy of national emancipation. The 
non-existence of this conflict became fully apparent 

cordate to the Holy See, intervened diplomatically. The conflict 
developed into a struggle between Austria as the propagandist 
of Germanism, and therefore desirous of a Croatia separate from 
the Serb people, and embracing Serb regions to act as her vanguard 
in the Balkans, and Serbia and Montenegro, both at that time in 
favour of Serb unity and determined (supported by France and 
Russia) that the Holy See should recognize the Illyrian, i.e. the 
Serbo-Croat (Jugoslav) character of the College of St. Jerome. 

The Serb States gained their point. The Holy See was prevailed 
upon to re-establish the Serbo-Croat character of the college, and 
to recognize the existence of Catholic Serbs, and thus — indirectly 
— Serbo-Croat national unity. (Convention of 7th March, 1902, 
signed in the name of Montenegro by the author, and in the name 
of the Holy See by Cardinal Rampolla.) 

This success scored by Serb diplomacy against Austrian was not 
the least of the reasons for the exclusive opposed by Austria to 
Cardinal Rampolla at the Conclave of 1903. 

237 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

on the day when Serbs and Croats realized their 
brotherhood and once more presented a united 
front to the common foe, as in 1848. The day 
when the nation realized that a great Croatian 
Kingdom, or a great Serbian Kingdom, merely 
represented two aspects of one and the same problem, 
the one and only danger to German penetration, 
on that day the Jugoslav Idea was reborn for the 
second time, and that finally and definitely. 

The year 1903 saw the reconciliation of the Serbs 
and Croats. The former agreed to the programme 
of union with Croatia and the latter solemnly pro- 
claimed the identity of both as regards nationality 
and aspirations. The policy of progress by stages 
triumphed once more in Dalmatia as in Croatia, 
reinforced by a closer understanding between the 
two branches of the nation. Austria, badly thrown 
out of her course, and the Magyars and Germans, 
who felt that their supremacy was seriously en- 
dangered by this move, declared war to the knife 
upon the new entente. Already in 1903 the united 
Serbs and Croats inflicted an unbroken series of 
electoral defeats upon the Governments of Vienna 
and Budapest, and in no Serbo-Croat country was 
the proclamation of the intimate union of the Serbs 
and Croats hailed more loyally or more enthusias- 
tically than in Dalmatia. Nor could it be otherwise. 
During the patriotic reign of Prince Michael Obren- 
ovic, the eyes of all Dalmatia and of the sister 
provinces were turned towards little Serbia, for 
all that she was still a vassal of the Ottoman 
Empire ! How well I remember the Serbophil 
gatherings of our fathers in my young days, the 
cult of the Kosovo ballads, full of exuberant pro- 

238 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

mises of reconquest and union ; those pictures of 
Serbian kings, from the Grand 2upan Nemanja to 
Michael Obrenovic, jealously guarded in many house- 
holds of Spalato, Sebenico and Zara ; the inflam- 
matory articles in the Nazionale ; the echo through- 
out the Dalmatian littoral of Pavlinovic's great 
speech in Lesina on ioth March, 1868, in the days 
before the Clerical leader had become a convert 
to the theory of a Jugoslav Poland. 

" The Serbs," said Pavlinovid, " are brothers of the Croats. 
In spite of a few distinctions which it is idle to disguise, the 
Serbs and the Croats are at bottom one single nation. Croa- 
tian rights have evolved the Triune Kingdom (Dalmatia, 
Croatia, Slavonia), whiph represents a powerful lever for 
progress. Without ulterior motives, the Croats are making 
their Serbian kinsmen sharers in their rights. By defending 
Croatian rights against the attacks of the other non-Slav 
nationalities, we Croats and Serbs will form the surest bul- 
warks of the Principality of Serbia. Nevertheless Serbia 
will always remain the hearth of that movement which will 
not cease until the day when its final object has been attained, 
and the war against the Turks will be neither the most 
perilous nor the last of its phases." 

The events of 1914 could not have been fore- 
shadowed more clearly in 1868 — and in an Austrian 
Dalmatia ! 

Ten years later, Klaic echoed these sentiments, 
speaking at a time when the conflict between Serbs 
and Croats over their political programmes was at 
its height. 

" As for me," he said in the sitting of 20th January, 
1877, " the two nationalities — the Serb and the Croat — 
do not exist, but only two off-shoots of one and the same 
nation, which is looking forward to an undivided glorious 

239 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

future under the sacred banner of liberty (applause). Who- 
ever would create two nationalities with divergent aspirations 
within the bosom of our country, would in the end transform 
both of them into the slaves of foreign guile and violence " 
(frantic applause) . I 

Even Bajamonti's policy bears out the spon- 
taneous character of these manifestations. The 
brilliant Mayor of Spalato, whose intense suscepti- 
bility made him, up to the time of his defection 
from the Liberal camp, the faithful echo of popular 
feeling, maintained the necessity of a direct railway 
connection between Spalato and Belgrade, and 
became the most enthusiastic supporter of the 
scheme. Thereby Bajamonti will always be remem- 
bered in Balkan history as one of the pioneers, if 
not the originator, of the project for linking up the 
Danube with the Adriatic, against which the forces 
of Austro-Hungarian diplomacy were marshalled for 
decades. Bajamonti applied personally at Vienna, 
Belgrade and Constantinople for authorization of 
the preliminary steps. It is not without interest 
to note that the Serbian Government immediately 
consented ; the Porte requested time for considera- 
tion ; Austria flatly refused, " because important 
political and strategic motives are opposed to it." 
Bajamonti caused an allegory to be played on the 
stage of the Municipal Theatre, representing " Dal- 

1 In the revised programme of the Majority in the Diet (8th 
June, 1875) Article I runs as follows : The club will promote the 
realization of the National principle and stand strongly upon the 
Croatian right, by which it will procure the union of Dalmatia 
with Croatia and Slavonia. Under the protection of this public 
right the Croats and Serbs of Dalmatia, forming one single nation, 
will enjoy equal rights. There is no nationality besides theirs 
recognized in Dalmatia. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

matia, inspired by the aspect of a fair lady in rich 
attire, of sedate appearance and noble mien and 
representing Civilization, extends her hand to a 
young maiden, prostrate on the ground, in ragged 
garments, but of a sturdy build ; and with a glad 
look of understanding Dalmatia places the right 
hand of the matron in that of the youthful maiden " 
(Serbia). Here we have Tommaseo's poetry ! The 
memorial fountain on the sea-front of Spalato repre- 
sents a beautiful youth poised on a pedestal of 
conch-shells. He symbolizes the concord of all 
parties, his face turned towards " beloved Serbia, 
reserved for glorious destinies in the not too distant 
future," and as with his right hand he " points to 
the glorious highlands that constitute the Balkan 
Peninsula, he seems to say, with steadfast glance 
and the gentle accents of intense affection, " See, 
my Spalato, there lies thy future (thus again 
Tommaseo's poetry !). Gather up thy strength, unite 
thy factions, multiply thy means of action and take 
thy place among thy brothers, enterprise and civili- 
zation are thy share in the common work." * 

Although these significant declarations were sub- 
sequently belied by the attitude assumed by the 
Autonomist party and by Bajamonti himself towards 
the end of his political career, they nevertheless 
remain an irrefragable proof of the true orientation 
of the Dalmatian spirit, of the spontaneity and 
priority of these demonstrations in which all parties 
bore their share. The Austrian Government mobil- 
ized the whole of its bureaucratic apparatus against 

1 Cf. the publications concerning the theatre of Spalato and 

the monumental fountain, published on behalf of Dr. Antonio 
Bajamonti, Spalato, 1870. 

241 q 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

them. It persecuted the Slav National party, which 
was several times accused of high treason ; nor 
did it rest until it had induced the prodigal son 
of Spalato to re-enter the ranks of its faithful 
majority, abjuring his " Panslav dreams " and 
entanglements with the obnoxious Slav party. 1 

1 In November 1880, in consequence of a brawl between civilians 
and soldiers, the Taaffe Cabinet decreed the dissolution of the 
Municipal Council of Spalato. It was indeed high time ! Over- 
whelmed from all sides, anxious to re-establish his wavering author- 
ity and exaggerating the neo-Italianism of the Autonomist party 
(which finally ruined him in the eyes of his own municipal electors), 
Bajamonti was nothing more than a living anachronism, political 
flotsam. He had become more and more subservient to that 
party which was labouring in Vienna to undermine the regime 
favourable to the Slavs, and straining every nerve to bring the 
Monarchy back to the good old times of Schmerling's Centralism. 
Austrian Germans and Dalmatian Italians went hand in hand. 
(Not an isolated phenomenon. In Gorica it is only, thanks to 
their alliance with the Germans, that the Italians were able to gain 
a majority in the Municipal Council.) The Mayor of Spalato 
could no longer maintain himself in power, save by a municipal 
wine-pot policy and fantastic electoral juggling. His prestige 
was gone. The common people, who did not understand a word 
of Italian, deserted after having idolized him. The anomaly of 
a large and entirely Slav municipality ruled by an oligarchy, which, 
while declaring itself Slav for the sake of the popular vote, never- 
theless carried on a quasi-Venetian regime, had become inexplic- 
able. The new elections took place in July 1882. Of the thirty-six 
town councillors elected, thirty were Croats and only six Autono- 
mists. Since then the municipality of Spalato has been entirely 
Slav, like the rest of the Dalmatian municipalities, with the excep- 
tion of Zara. (The why and wherefore of this exception are given 
n Appendix IV.) 

Far from having desired this change, the Austrian Government 
— and that in spite of Bajamonti's anti-Taaffian policy — had 
only decided upon it in pure self-defence, propelled by the tide 
of Slavism. Vienna was not over-anxious to see a young and 
vigorous Slavia, energetically demanding the union of Dalmatia 
with Croatia and Bosnia, installed in place of a decrepit, super- 
annuated party, prepared to make any concessions and amenable 
to orders from the Central Government, provided it was in return 

242 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The more than deplorable dissension between 
the Serbs and Croats which lasted for over twenty 
years (1878-1903) and was then dissipated by the 
revolutionary power of events, had its origin in the 
erroneous belief that there were two nationalities, 
both Slav, but distinct from each other, in much 

given carte blanche by the Government to run the affairs of the 
province in opposition to the will of the overwhelming majority 
in the country. 

To these internal political reasons must be added certain con- 
siderations of foreign policy. 

Before the war Austria never looked upon Italy as a very 
formidable power. The question of the Vatican, the party tied 
between Rome and Berlin, and, later on, the Triple Alliance, 
Crispi's anti- French policy, the chronic military unpreparedness 
of Italy, the arrogance of the Viennese aristocracy, and the men- 
tality of the Austrian bureaucracy suffice to explain this feeling of 
security, coupled with a slight contempt on the part of the ancient 
Monarchy towards the young kingdom. Moreover, Italy gave 
cause for this estimate in Viennese circles by her complaisant and 
obliging attitude, by the efforts she made to cause her democratic 
and revolutionary origin to be forgotten by assiduously frequenting 
the aristocratic and reactionary salons of the Danubian capital. 
(And herein lies one more reason for Italian contempt of the Slavs, 
the heritage of this long association with Austrians and Magyars, 
and unknown to the generation of the Risorgimento.) 

The clamour of the Italian irredentists who, despite Bajamonti, 
identified the Dalmatian autonomist cause with their own, left 
Vienna cold. It was not until much later, when the advance upon 
Salonica and Scutari was decided upon in Vienna, that Austria 
thought herself bound to cajole Italy with a platonic compensation, 
viz., the inviolability of the pro-Italian municipality of Zara, with 
its " Italian " town councillors, Nakic, Medovic, Bozic, Giljanovic, etc. 

The danger from Russia was far more real, permanent and 
immediate. The Slav current, swelled by tributary forces coming 
from the great Slav protectress in the north, constantly threatened 
to carry all before it. The Empire of the Tsars was a bugbear. 
By the mere passive existence of this gigantic Empire, the secret 
weaknesses of which were not yet known, the Slavs of Austria 
were rendered dangerous. At the very least — and thanks to the 
Czech agitation — a Federalist movement was to be feared. The 
Dalmatian Italians, clinging desperately to the German Consti- 

243 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the same way as the Russians and Poles, following 
opposite ideals, living two separate lives and coupled 
together only in the minds of a few fanatics, the 
more or less unconscious instruments of the ever- 
lasting Austro-Russian animosity. Nothing could be 
more mistaken than this assumption which was 
deliberately spread from the tainted springs of 
Vienna and Budapest, which still supply even 
generous Italy with much of her information 
concerning the Slav world. 

The Serbo-Croat difference was a purely political 
matter. It bore no national aspect. It was brought 
about by the historical divorce of the two branches 
of the nation and by their belonging the one to the 
Western and the other to the Eastern Church (though 
there are Orthodox Croats as well as Catholic Serbs). 
Both these facts are due to the circumstance that 
fate placed the Serbo-Croat nation at the meeting- 
place of two worlds, which incidentally explains 
the eagerness of the Germans to secure a passage 
to the East over the dead body of our nation. 
Between the Russians and the Poles — both pro- 
foundly Slav, though differing greatly from one 
another — these two cardinal facts have raised a 
well-nigh insurmountable barrier. But the psycho- 
logy of Serbo-Croat Unity has really been less 
influenced by them, than the individual branches 

tutional party (die verfassungstveue Parti), led by Plener and Herbst, 
would always have opposed that. They would have given their 
faithful support even to a Taaffe Cabinet, only to lay the spectre 
of Federalism. The Italians had nothing to gain by a federal 
Austria, in which the great Czech statesman Palacky only assigned 
them the Trentino. Thus it was Vienna's interest to protect the 
pro-Italian Autonomists of Dalmatia against the Slavs, just the 
same as in i860 and 1874. But the Slav movement had grown, 
and Vienna had to yield. 

244 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the German race by divergencies of a far more 
superficial order. 1 

The essential unity of the Serbo-Croat nation, 
so-called from its two principal branches, has always 
been maintained by all who were devoted to the 
cult of the common language. Nevertheless the 
Serbs and the Croats and the two countries to which 
they have given their name, form only a small part 
of the national heritage and, like Bavaria, Prussia, 
Saxony and Hanover, they are only parts of a nation. 
It is true that in the Middle Ages the two branches 
formed two distinct States. But the formation of 
several States by one nation was by no means an 
uncommon phenomenon in the Middle Ages. And 
even now there exist two Serbian States, not kept 
apart by religious difference, which nevertheless 
have remained separate to this day, because they 
have not yet arrived at the necessary degree of 
political maturity nor at the kind of historic crisis 
which breaks down every barrier and forces two 
political entities into immediate union. Nevertheless 
nobody would quote the political disjunction of the 

1 All manner of subtle separatist arguments have been adduced 
to prove that an " abyss " separates the Serbs from the Croats. 
The histories of Italy and Germany show how thorny is the path 
towards the unity of a people. I would draw the attention of my 
readers to the following passage, quoted from Mazzini's Autobio- 
graphical Notes : " In 1826 and 1827 Guerazzi had already written 
J Bianchi e i Neri and La Battaglia di Benevento. And, neverthe- 
less, his very name was unknown in Genoa. So complete was 
the separation between one province and another belonging to one 
and the same country." People should call to mind the great 
distances which, owing to the lack of direct communication, to 
this day cut off Serbia from Dalmatia, and even the latter from 
Croatia (not to mention the cordons of police stretched between 
the individual Jugoslav lands), in order to arrive at a just estimate 
of the huge strides made towards the unification of Serbo-Croat 
literature, since 1830. 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Serbo-Croat lands — which was due to the tragic circum- 
stances of the age — as an argument to deny their 
unity and common aspirations. It is only those ethnic 
powers which have hitherto based their own usurping 
and oppressive dominion upon their dismemberment 
and intend to go on doing so in the future. 

Croatia had her dynasty of native princes at the 
time of the struggle between the Papal See and 
the Empire. Towards the end of the eleventh 
century she entered into a treaty with the Kings 
of Hungary, whereby the latter became sovereigns 
of Croatia also. The development of the Kingdom 
of Serbia, on the other hand, coincided with the era 
of the great Gothic, cathedrals in Italy, with the 
rise of the Italian city Republics. It was the age 
of Dante and Petrarch, and Serbia's greatest sove- 
reigns were contemporaries of the great Doges of 
the thirteenth century. Dante makes mention of 
Serbia. His rebuke of her kings (better known in 
those days as Kings of Rasha) for having " forged 
the coin of Venice " (Paradiso xix. 140) is evidence 
of the fame of Serbia in those days and of her struggle 
against Venetian influence and commerce. Croatia, 
on the other hand, passes before the vision of the 
divine poet in the gracious guise of the pilgrim 
prostrate in St. Peter's, lost in ecstatic contem- 
plation of the mystic veil : 

" From the far North, 1 as one who journeys down 
The Kerchief of Veronica to see, 
Who, yet unsated— such its great renown — 

Still stands a-gazing and says inwardly, 
' Jesus, my Lord, Thou Christ, God's only Son, 
And was thy look such in reality ? ' " 

Paradiso xxxi. 103—109. 

1 " From Croatia," in the original. 
246 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

For a short time the Serbian realm rose to the 
rank of an Empire, courted by the powerful 
Republic of Venice and by Rome. At one time 
the Serbian Monarchy included Bosnia and Croatia 
as far as the Slavonian plains and the fertile hills 
of Syrmia ; at another it extended over Dalmatia, 
annexed Cattaro and allied itself with Ragusa, 
which on two occasions welcomed the Emperor 
Stephen IV — the Tsar Dusan of the national ballads 
— within its walls. 

Within this realm Bosnia, like another Duchy of 
Burgundy, disputed the leadership of our race with 
Serbia. The Bans of Bosnia eventually assumed 
the royal crown and styled themselves " Rex Croatia, 
Dalmatias et Serviae." They extended their realm 
up to the very gates of Spalato, and were in so far 
precursors of the numerous Bosnian and Herze- 
govinian noble families which settled later on in 
Dalmatia in the days of the Turkish invasion 
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 1 

Croatia, now a vassal of the Kings of Hungary, 
rent by dynastic feuds in which the common 
people took no interest, seemed lost to the national 
horizon. Not so lost, however, but that she came 
to Serbia's aid on the field of Kosovo (1389), where 

1 Besides the partial attempts of the native princes of Croatia 
and the wider enterprise of the Serbian Emperor Dusan (Stephen 
Uro§ IV), our history records two other distinct attempts at a 
political centralization of the various branches of the Jugoslav 
race, both of which foundered owing to the Centralist tendencies 
of the non-Slav races. In the early part of our history Ljudevit 
Posavski (819-822) raised the Slav peoples against the Franks 
and for several years united the Pannonian Croats, the Slovenes 
and the Danubian Serbs under his leadership ; so that he ruled 
over all the Jugoslav lands from the sources of the Sava to the 
mouth of the Timok. Several centuries later Ban (subsequently 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the flower of Croatia's knighthood and her Ban 
perished gloriously beside the flower of Serbia's 
nobility. 

Nor does the Battle of Kosovo furnish the only 
historical instance of Serbo-Croat unity. On count- 
less occasions the Serbo-Croat race acted jointly 
in all the great manifestations and crises of the 
national Ego. In these pages I have rather dwelt 
upon the war of 1848, of which Cavour had so 
profound a comprehension. I would also like to 
draw attention to the Serbo-Croat demonstrations 
between i860 and 1868, that era of fruitful and 
joint political and intellectual effort in the lands 
between the Drave, the Save and on the Adriatic. 
Against a background of Congresses, Diets and 
festivals, which before the fatal day of Sedan seemed 
the prelude of a peaceful and conclusive solution 
of the Jugoslav problem, moves the grand figure 
of Bishop Strossmayer, like the personified idea of 
Union. He was the herald of Jugoslavdom, which 
owes to him its first official consecration ; he was 
the prophet of Serbo-Croat union, the princely 
Maecenas and brilliant orator, who endowed the 
Capital of Croatia with an Academy of Science and 
Art, upon which he bestowed the title of Jugoslav 

King) Tvrtko of Bosnia {d. 1391) conquered part of Croatia, as 
well as Dalmatia from Sebenico to Spalato, assumed the title of 
King of Croatia and Dalmatia, had himself crowned " King of the 
Serbs, of Bosnia and the Maritime Regions," and was recognized 
as such by the Republics of Venice and Ragusa. The idea of 
politically unifying these territories, which are akin in blood and 
language, is therefore, as we see, the deeply rooted growth of cen- 
turies ; it is not a modern political fad, although the enemies of 
Slavdom would like to represent it in this light to the Allied Powers. 
(Cf. Historical Introduction.) 

248 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Academy (1866), with a University (1874), and an 
Art Gallery (1882). 

The last named represents a magnificent col- 
lection of altar-pieces and pictures of almost all 
the Italian schools, from Giotto to Titian, which he, 
moved by his love of art and with the idea of pre- 
serving the light of Latin civilization in the Southern 
Slav lands, generously presented to the nation. 1 
I want to remind my readers of the struggle for 
the sacred heritage of the Slav apostles Cyril and 
Method, the Slav liturgy which, in spite of fierce 
opposition on the part of the Austrian Government, 
is still celebrated in Dalmatia, where the prelacy 
is entirely Slav. 3 The Chapel of SS. Cyril and 
Method in St. Clement's in Rome has been the mute 
witness of countless Slav ceremonies, of acts of 
piety and patriotism on the part of pilgrims from 
Dalmatia, Croatia, the Slovene lands and Istria, 
who have prostrated themselves before the image 
of the Christ, with one hand raised in benediction, 
while the other holds the open volume of the Book, 

1 The great Bishop also insisted on subscribing the munificent 
sum of 120,000 francs to Bajamonti's Dalmatian Association. 

* The fact that the seven Dalmatian bishops — the Archbishop 
of Zara and the Bishops of Sebenico, Spalato, Makarska (suffragan) 
of the Isles (whose seat is in Lesina), of Ragusa and Cattaro — are 
all of them Slavs, affords incontestable proof that the Holy See 
considers Dalmatia a purely Slav land. As a matter of fact, if 
the Holy See considered even one oi the seven dioceses — I will 
not even say mainly Italian, but simply mixed — it would certainly 
not have hesitated to appoint at least one Italian bishop among 
the seven. But there is no such diocese in Dalmatia. Indeed, 
there is not so much as one Italian parish. 

Although we have had certain Italianizing bishops in Dalmatia 
in the 'seventies and 'eighties (such as Mgr. de Maupas, Archbishop 
of Zara, and Mgr. Fosco, Bishop of Spalato), they were, in spite of 
themselves, compelled to recognize the Slav character of Dalmatia. 

249 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

upon which the hand of an Italian artist has traced 
Slav texts in Slav characters. 1 

Then there was the Ragusan Festival of 1892, 
at the time when political discord between the 
Serbs and Croats was most acute, and the whole 
nation united in enthusiastic homage to the poet 
Ivan Gundulic, by celebrating the tercentenary of 
his birth. On this memorable occasion, Dalmatia 
invited to Ragusa the representatives of all countries 
Serb and Croat, from Cetinje to Zagreb, from Fiume 
to Belgrad. King Alexander's tribute to the national 
bard was a wreath of flowers gathered on Kosovo 
Field ; the Prince of Montenegro sent a represen- 
tative, every choral and athletic society sent dele- 
gates, and this gathering was a veritable plebiscite 
for the union, in spite of the political conflicts of 
which we had an echo even during the festival. The 
whole celebration was so spontaneous and general, 
that Austria grew suspicious, and conceived the 
brilliant idea of sending the Governor of Dalmatia 
in hot haste to Ragusa to overpower the perfume 
of the flowers of Kosovo by offering a garland of 
yellow and black ribbons to the poet of Jugoslav 
Unity ! 

Then there were the Zagreb and Vienna Trials, 
the Congresses, the outbursts of popular enthusiasm 
in Sebenico, Spalato, Ragusa and Cattaro over the 
victories of the Serbian armies at Kumanovo and 
Prilep. It was a remote echo, but expressive of 
the same idealism as that which animated the 
enthusiasts for the liberation of their Serbian brothers 

1 Cf. the author's article on Bishop Strossmayer in the 
September-October issue, 19 19, of the New World (Simpkin, 
Marshall). Cf. also App. IV on the Slav Liturgy. 

250 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in 1875, when the Serbo-Croat Committee of Zara 
corresponded with Garibaldi, through Galli, Member 
of the Italian Parliament. 

But it was the national ballad poetry, the song 
of the great catastrophe of Kosovo — the fatal plain 
where in this war for the fourth time the fate 
of the Serbo-Croat nation was decided — which, 
during the age-long night of the Ottoman slavery, 
was the badge and palladium of both races, the bond 
of union, the indestructible symbol of National 
Unity and faith in Resurrection. Sundered by the 
barrier of blood traced by the Ottoman sword, 
sundered by the barrier of police of that other 
Empire which excelled even the Turk in perfidy, 
inasmuch as it was the systematic persecutor of 
the soul of the nation, which the Turk never 
attempted to attack ; sundered by military cordons, 
by agrarian regimes and differences of creed, by 
superimposed civilizations, by ceaseless efforts to 
bring about their moral dissolution and denation- 
alization, the Serbo-Croats never ceased to give 
the philosopher and historian cause to ponder and 
to stand amazed at the tenacity with which they 
kept alive the national thought and the belief in 
their own destiny. 

By a miracle of tradition the national ballads, 
the cycles of Kosovo, Dusan and Marko Kraljevic, 
the lament for lost greatness and the song of hope 
that one day the Serbs and Croats will yet reconquer 
the sacred spots which they have lost and been 
forced to yield to the stranger, spread and multiplied 
in endless variations throughout all the territory 
inhabited by the two brother races. They crossed 
the famous " impassable " Dinaric Alps ; guarded 

251 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

by the hosts of the blind, they forded rivers, torrents 
and lakes, they invaded open towns and fortified 
cities alike, they descended from Novigrad and 
Obrovac to Zara and Spalato and their surroundings ; 
they took possession of the most inaccessible moun- 
tain passes and the most difficult bridges. The 
many-voiced invisible song cast its spell over count- 
less generations of men who returned from their 
contact with the denationalized noble, feudal seignior 
or Turkish aga, and lived and laughed in their fields, 
their churches, at the cross-roads, at the dances 
and village assemblies, stoically resigned and self- 
contained, but stirred to the depths by the voices 
of blind minstrels, whom they joined in composing 
new songs about new happenings or in further 
glorifying the Imperial dream. 1 

1 The most beautiful variants of the Serbian national ballads 
are found in Dalmatia. Several of them were reproduced by 
Tommaseo in his fine translation of the Illyrian Ballads. 

Vuk Stefanovid Karadjic (i 782-1864), whose standard collection 
of the Serbian national ballads is world famous, visited Dalmatia 
on several occasions. In 1862 he was my father's guest in Spalato. 
He discovered several new ballads during his stay, and encouraged 
the Nationalists in the Italianized town to persevere in the struggle 
for the emancipation of Slav Dalmatia. 

Vuk Karadjic has rightly been called the Father of Modern 
Serbian literature. His is the great merit of having unified the 
Serbo-Croatian language, by adopting the idiom spoken in the 
Herzegovina as the literary language, introducing phonetic spelling, 
etc. His far-reaching reforms roused much hostility at first. 
For simplifying the Cyrillic alphabet by omitting a few archaic 
and obsolete characters still in use in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, 
the conservative Russians and the members of the Holy Synod 
denounced him as an " Austrian agent." Moreover, the sympathies 
of the Old-Russians for the Serbian cause were considerably alien- 
ated by Karadjid's reforms, and later on — after 1876 — the Bulgars, 
who remained faithful to the old Cyrillic alphabet, profited by 
this campaign against Serbian spelling ! 

On the other hand, the Austrian Government pursued the great 

252 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Another result of the persecution of our people 
and the struggle they have been compelled to this 
day to wage for the bare right to exist and to found 
a fatherland, was the flow of migration which went 
on without intermission for centuries. What De 
Maistre said of the Napoleonic cataclysms is certainly 
true of the Serbo-Croat nation : " Nous avons ete 
dcrases pour etre rneles." 

The official standard of some sixty years ago, 
and incidentally that of the Romantic period, re- 
cognized a servant race, and a superimposed, non- 
indigenous master race, the ruling and the ruled. 
It was the obsolete standard of the successors of 
the great Imperialists, and whoever would apply 
it to the people of Dalmatia and Croatia could 
thereby reveal a complete incapacity for dealing 
with the complex problems which constitute the 
web of modern politics. 

Between Bosnia, Herzegovina, Old Serbia, Mace- 
donia and the regions north of the Save and around 
the Adriatic, there was a constant ebb and flow 
that followed the course of the Ottoman invasion 
and completed the work of the earlier migrations 
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. That is 
why in the remotest extremities of Croatia you find 
immigrant populations from the remotest extremities 
of Herzegovina, why Syrmia and Slavonia were 
re-populated by Macedonian Serbs from Pec and 
Ochrida, and all Dalmatia and the islands are full 
of Bosnians, Herzegovinians and Old Serbians ; 

Serbian scholar, who lived in Vienna, with illiberal vexations. 
In 1822 he was refused permission to publish the second edition 
of the National Ballads, and in 1842 he was severely reprimanded 
for having published a Serbian translation of the New Testament 
in Leipzig I 

253 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the last-named even migrating as far as Italy, as 
we have seen, in the fourteenth century. Serbia 
herself, a country of which modern journalism 
has built up an erroneous conception, as though 
it had no ancient ties of racial kinship with either 
Dalmatia or Bosnia, became one of the great crucibles 
of our race. 1 The principal actors — and Kara George 
above all — in the revolutionary epic of 1806 and 
1815, were Herzegovinian, Bosnian and finally 
Dalmatian refugees. 

Neither religious considerations, nor the char- 
acters of the alphabet, neither facial type nor 
complexion, nor the high-sounding names of noble 
houses, can be invoked with impunity in support 
of any solution of the problems of our race, save 
the one and only natural solution — Union. All is 
intermingled, fused, crossed, amalgamated ; only 
the artificial fence set up by alien-spirited govern- 

1 The main current of Dinaric migration, the strongest of all, 
starting from Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Old Serbia, flowed towards 
the Serbian-Morava region, Croatia, and lastly Dalmatia. In the 
last-named country this current of Dinaric migration took the 
transverse routes, passes and water-courses of Prolog (north-west 
of Spalato), of the Narenta, Krstac and others. 

It reached the Adriatic and Istrian Isles. Almost the entire 
population of Bocche di Cattaro is descended from emigrants from 
Montenegro and Herzegovina. 

These immigrant refugees were encouraged by the Venetians, 
who needed them for the defence of the Dalmatian frontiers against 
the Turks, and they greatly increased the ranks of the Serbo-Croat 
population in Dalmatia. 

Later on, the Serbo-Croats assimilated the last remnants of the 
older, superficially Italianized Slav population as well as a few 
score Venetian families settled in Dalmatia under the administration 
of the Republic. 

Readers are recommended to consult La Pininsule Balkanique 
(Armand Colin, 1918), by the well-known Balkan authority, Prof. 
Jovan Cvijic, Rector of the University of Belgrade. 

254 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

ments still holds out against the rising flood, which 
Austria foresaw so plainly, that she did not hesitate 
to stake her own existence in the final attempt to 
break up our nation into " despised common herds " 

" And in despite of years and destiny 
To thrust it back into its ancient griefs." 

In spite of the docility of Dalmatian political 
parties, and all attempts on their part to find a 
formula which would reconcile the cast-iron Empire 
with the national life, the dominant wish of our 
nation, thus welded into one, was nowhere more 
boldly proclaimed than in Dalmatia, as if thereby 
the Slav land were trying to show its sympathy 
with the Latin genius of unification, with its love 
of lucidity and construction. 

In 1866 these sentiments found expression in an 
article by Count Pozza, who had already in his 
youth in Padua distinguished himself, as we have 
seen, by his passionate devotion to the Slav 
Idea. 

Before entering into a long and painful eclipse 
under the reigns of the two last Obrenovic sovereigns, 
Serbia had in 1866, as now in 1914, placed herself 
at the head of the Jugoslav movement under Prince 
Michael. To this day the effigy of the Prince on 
his death-bed is to be seen in all the Slav reading- 
rooms of Spalato and Zara, with the inscription : 

" Tvoja misao poginnti nece." 1 

And during his lifetime he found worthy fellow- 
workers in Croatia and Dalmatia, chiefly Bishop 

1 "Thy thought will not perish." 
255 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Strossmayer and the Croat National party, with its 
chiefs Mrazovic, Racki and Miskatovic. 

Alread}^ the conviction was ripening in the people 
that the future of the race could no longer be 
jeopardized and that no solution could be considered 
except the grouping of all the national forces round 
Serbia. All attempts to replace the latter by other 
political factors (e.g. Croatia, Montenegro, etc.) 
were foredoomed to failure. In spite of the pro- 
found Occidentalism of the Dalmatians and the 
Croats, ultra-Democratic and Oriental Serbia 
exercised a genuine fascination upon all patriots 
between the Drave and the Adriatic. 1 

This fascination reached its height in 1866. It 
was due to two fundamental causes : firstly, to 
democratic liberty, which was as far removed from 
Austrian bureaucratic rule as it is, by its very 
definition, from Russian autocracy as aped by 
the Montenegrin sovereigns ; and secondly, to the 
sublime altruism of the little country, however 
often rent by internal strife. Even at the most 
painful moments in her history, Serbia has never 
failed to reject even the most seductive and advan- 
tageous offers from strangers, but given a haughty 
refusal to the fiends of Austria and Turkey who 

1 We would here remind our readers that Dalmatia has given 
three Ministers of the Crown to Serbia (Mr. Jovanovic, of Cattaro, 
Minister for the Interior in the present Pasid Cabinet ; Mr. Djaja, 
of Ragusa, Catholic, late Minister of the Interior and Minister- 
Plenipotentiary ; and the late General Franasovid, of Curzola, 
Catholic, Minister for Foreign Affairs under King Alexander), 
besides numerous officers, professors, consuls, etc. Yet one other 
Dalmatian of Cavtat, the late Mr. Bogisid, Catholic, was at one 
time Minister of Justice in Montenegro. The Civil Code drawn 
up by him for the tiny Serb State represents a very remarkable 
essay at codifying Serb customary law. 

256 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

tempted her, saying : "I will give thee all things, 
if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Serbia 
did not fall down and did not worship. 

Of the irresistible force of attraction inherent 
in Serbia we have a proof in her great peasant leaders, 
before whom our aristocracy of blood and intellect 
has always bowed, although exposed to all the 
lures of civilization. We have proof of it in that 
amazing Karageorge, that titanic figure which, 
springing from an enslaved country locked in its 
primeval forests, deprived of all contact with 
civilization — which it had once known, however, 
and defended — snatched, like Prometheus, the torch 
which fired the whole peninsula from the Danube 
to the Adriatic and Aegean, and implied a sentence 
of slow but certain death upon two tyrant Empires, 
the butcher of the flesh and the butcher of the 
spirit. We have proof of it in Milos, the organizer 
of the Jugoslav Piedmont who, in 1842, wrote to 
the intellectuals of Zagreb : "I thank the chivalrous 
Croats for their effort- in the vast domain of Slav 
culture, for their zeal for the establishment and 
development of our nationality." Nor must we 
forget Michael, who so wisely profited by the 
redoubtable crises in the neighbouring Empires 
of Austria and Turkey. Like Jelacld, he enjoyed 
the undivided confidence of the nation from Zagreb 
to Cattaro, but he was more personal, more inde- 
pendent than the Ban, and not enslaved by the 
spell of devotion to dynasty and caste ; he dared, 
though a vassal of the Sultan, to demand the 
adherence of Croatia and Dalmatia to a plan of 
National Unity, the very plan to which Prince 
Nicholas of Montenegro (at that time not yet cir- 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

cumvented by Machiavellian agents) declared himself 
ready to sacrifice his little throne. 

In 1866 we were tempted to believe that after 
so many centuries of humiliation and suffering, 
fortune had at last begun to smile upon us. 

In Dalmatia, the national question was the object 
of fierce contest between the National party and 
the Autonomists, whose Liberal leaders had already 
gone over bag and baggage to the Governmental 
Reactionary party under the Italian label. The 
Monarchy had already taken the turning towards 
the conflict which was to expel her from Germany 
and throw her into the arms of Prussia. 

In this historic moment of suspense Count Pozza 
published a political programme article in Florence, 
in the January issue of the Nuova Antologia 
under the significant title of "La Serbia e l'lmpero 
d'Oriente " (Serbia and the Empire of the 
East). 

Before I conclude, may I be permitted to draw 
attention to several striking passages in this article, 
in which the programme of 1914 is outlined with 
admirable lucidity ? Pozza's prognostication, which 
expressed the secret hope of all Jugoslav patriots, 
even in those moments when they seemed for the 
most part to have turned away from it, may well 
have provoked the smiles of the many who were 
ignorant of the slow, but steady growth of the Great 
Idea. But there were privileged exceptions like 
Tommaseo, who often met with Pozza during their 
stay by the shores of the Arno, or Mazzini, who 
studied Mieczkiewicz and Cyprien Robert in Lugano. 
The latter, especially, understood the writings of 
both Pozza and Tommaseo, and they served him 

258 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

as studies which enabled him both then and later 
on to write his epoch-making Slav Letters. 

" The marvellous solution of the Italian Cause," wrote 
the Dalmatian noble, " proceeding more from the mind 
than from the heart, represents to-day the supreme triumph 
of the principle of nationality over the sophisms of historic 
right, natural frontiers, political equilibrium, which agitate 
the minds of statesmen. By having become at one stroke 
the greatest support of this principle, it has given a strong 
impetus towards Liberty to the rest of Europe, and has 
already given prominence to sundry other questions which 
have hitherto been kept in the background. By far the most 
pressing of these is that which is called in modern parlance the 
Eastern Question. 

" This question — which confronts the politicians like a 
spectre and involves so many names and so many special 
questions, such as the Cretan, the Greek, the Moldavo- 
Wallachian, the Montenegrin, the Serbian, the Croatian, 
the Hungarian, the Albanian, the Herzegovinian, the Bul- 
garian, and others as well — will become much simpler at 
once, if it is examined by the light of the principle which has 
triumphed to-day in Italy, viz. the principle of nationality. 

" We shall then see towering in the East, as the supreme 
and radical Question, one which has perhaps hitherto not 
caused so much noise, i.e. the Serbian Question. This cannot 
be settled by the cession of a few fortresses * to the Princi- 
pality of Serbia by the Turk, by the granting of a few privi- 

1 The fortresses of Belgrade, Sabac, Smederevo, Kladovo, Soko, 
and Uzice were in 1866 still garrisoned by the Turks, and their 
evacuation was looked upon as a great personal success for Prince 
Michael. Most remarkable is the general conviction of the Serbo- 
Croat nation in the most tragic moments of the history of Serbia 
(1813, 1866, 1914-19), that the united future of the race cannot 
be compromised, and that no solution of the national question 
can be taken into serious consideration but the grouping of all 
the national forces around Serbia. All attempts at substituting 
other political factors — such as Croatia, Montenegro, etc. — have 
failed ignominiously. 

Pozza was one of the most zealous champions of the mission 
of Serbia, in spite of his Western culture and inclinations. 

259 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

leges to its Prince, and perhaps an addition of a little territory ; 
the Serbian cause involves far greater consequences. It 
extends far beyond the limits of the present Principality ; 
it includes and blends with the Jugoslav Question, of which 
it is the most important part, and its triumph would bring in 
its train that of the principle of nationality in the (Near) East, 
i.e. the destruction of both the Austrian and Turkish Empires 
(the present occupiers of its territory) and the reconstruction 
of the East on a natural basis, rendering it preponderantly 
Slav. 

" This programme of a great Jugoslav realm, the centre 
of a confederation of lesser Roumanian, Magyar, Albanian, 
and Greek States, is the ideal of all Slavs who realize that, 
willy-nilly, they are the inevitable heirs of two moribund 
Empires, and that when the conventional agglomerations 
of Turkish and Austrian territory are broken up, they will 
necessarily remain the most compact body placed by nature 
in the East. This programme, which has been cherished in 
silence and revealed only in glimpses here and there in one 
form or another, has been instinctively opposed, not only 
by the Austrians and the Turks, but also by those who would 
replace their conventionalism by their own, viz. the Greeks 
and the Magyars, and hindered by those who from a spirit 
of rivalry are disputing its leadership, viz. the Serbs and 
the Croats. Certainly this programme is not to be found 
formulated in any European Cabinet, although it is, obvi- 
ously, the only one which an ethnological knowledge of the 
past would suggest . . . yet to suggest its immediate appli- 
cation now would be simply to qualify for the reputation 
of a madman. 

" Only the Italians, whom the Materialists of those days 
have so often called mad, and who have nevertheless — thank 
God ! — made of this Italy, this geographical expression, a 
kingdom which, better than any other in Europe, embodies 
the absolute principle of nationality — only they can sym- 
pathize with the madness of the Jugoslavs, and agree with 
them in their desire to emerge from the condition of an 
ethnographic expression and pass on to that of a political 
organism. As, moreover, the destruction of at least the 
Turkish Empire is an inevitable and perhaps imminent event — 
and it might be fatal to Italy if Austria, her old and inveterate 

260 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

enemy, should profit by this, and, strengthened by the Turkish 
Slav provinces, convert the eastern shore of the Adriatic 
into a menace to Italy's future — it is of the greatest interest 
to the latter to prevent this at all costs, and to favour by 
every means within reason the realization of the Jugoslav 
programme." 

After having thus formulated the problem of the 
Jugoslav world, with a clearness that leaves nothing 
to be desired, the author devotes fourteen short 
chapters to a recapitulation of the historical-political 
development of the individual component parts of 
the Jugoslav race, including the Bulgars. All con- 
verge (according to him) towards a concentration 
of the national forces — except the Bulgarian, how- 
ever — round Serbia. Even Croatia, " the life-saving 
plank in the shipwreck of the Austrian dynasty," 
is bound to follow the fate of Serbia. Anticipating 
by half a century the declaration made by the 
Croatian refugee leaders to M. Delcasse and Sir 
Edward Grey, Pozza wrote : 

" The Slavs of Croatia and Slavonia, if the dialect of a 
people is any indication of its race, belong to the Serbian 
branch in Slavonia and in the military frontier, and to the 
Carnic branch in civil Croatia ; but as even the latter, ever 
since they formulated their views on the future, have adopted 
the Serbian idiom as their official tongue, Serbian literature 
as their own literature, the Serbian lands as their own country, 
retaining only the name of Croats, such mere substitution 
of one name for another makes no difference to the gist of 
the matter, and the cause of the Kingdom of Croatia is the 
Serbian cause.' 1 

1 " The Kingdom of Croatia, or, to call it by its diplomatic 
name, the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Slavonia, and Croatia, the focus 
of which in its day was Dalmatia, which, although to-day no 
longer part of it, is nevertheless the only country where you find 
Croats of unmixed stock, viz., in the district of Zara, Sebenico, 
Spalato and the Adriatic Islands." . . . Thus Pozza, in the above- 
quoted article, chap. xv. 

261 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

In concluding his prophetic article, which really 
deserves to be reprinted at this juncture and circu- 
lated widely, Pozza expresses himself as follows : 

" The urgent necessity of protecting European civilization 
and liberty demands the establishment in the (Near) East 
of a sizeable State, which by its strength, its extent, by its 
natural ties with the rest of civilized Europe and by the 
probability of future growth, will be able to protect itself 
and all of us from a Russian invasion, an Austrian invasion 
and an unforeseen and cataclysmic solution of the Eastern 
Question." 

" If this State is to be a live state, it can only be a Slav 
State. Through it Russia would lose the moral advantage 
which she derives from being the sole representative and, 
so to say, the guardian of the Slavs in the Councils of Europe ; 
Austria would lose the moral advantage she derives from 
her Slavs, and especially from the Jugoslavs, and their hopes 
of finding in the Monarchy a stable support and a centre of 
their own. This State, the existence of which has become 
necessary to the safety of Europe, can only be, as our discourse 
goes to show, a Kingdom of Serbia. 

" Let Italy consider this ! " 

Thus has Dalmatia, lty the mouth of Gundulic, 
Kacic, and Pocid, clearly and emphatically laid 
down in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries our national programme which is now 
being realized amid untold catastrophes. " Let 
Italia consider this," is still the Dalmatian poli- 
tician's message to Italy. 

During all those years of political eclipse, when 
she was a member of the Triple Alliance, have her 
diplomats and publicists kept her informed of the 
highly important evolutionary movement of those 
races which did not happen to be the fortunate and 
dominating ones in the Monarchy ? I doubt it. 
The Serbian, Croat and Jugoslav world in general 

262 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

was not considered worth studying, in spite of the 
frequent warnings of Mazzini and Tommaseo. Instead 
of sound knowledge there was blind faith in the 
rancours of a few renegades ; or, in the absence 
of comprehension of the political events on the 
opposite shore of the Adriatic, he recriminations 
of a single political party, isolated from the live 
part of the nation, were accepted as gospel truth. 

The opening of the first Croatian University in 
Zagreb in 1874, was attended by delegations from 
the Universities of Padua and Bologna. To the 
Serbo-Croat people the eloquent and flattering 
greetings from the Rectors of these Universities 
conveyed oblivion of the wars in which precisely 
the Croats had suffered so cruelly. But they were 
received with frigid indifference by an Italian public 
kept in ignorance of the development of a Slav 
nation appointed by destiny to be Italy's natural 
ally and fellow-worker. 

It needed the roar of guns in the Balkans to cause 
the writings of the Genoese Prophet to be un- 
earthed, read by a few, and noted by a yet smaller 
number as being something more than the outcome 
of the usual Mazzinian idealism. The indignation 
and advice of Prati, Tommaseo and a few other clear- 
sighted Italians, intent on seeing the foundation of an 
important Chair of Jugoslav history and literature 
on the model of that in the Sorbonne, were ignomini- 
ously lost in the slough of public indifference. Only 
quite recently the University of London called 
the distinguished Professor Masaryk to the newly 
created Chair of Slav Studies and appointed a young 
Croat lecturer I of Serbo-Croat language and lite.ature. 

1 Srgjan Tucid. 

263 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

But truly the Jugoslav world was better known to 
the Venetians of the fourteenth cen ury than to the 
propagand sts of the twentieth, who nevertheless 
boast that they are carrying the traditions of Venice. 
They have refused to see anything in the Jugoslav 
movement but what the Austrian police saw there, 
i.e. a serie; of experiments by a few hot-heads, 
the conscious or unconscious instruments of Russia, 
the enemy. They have been bent on seeing con- 
spiracies against Italy where there are really none 
but the one of Italy's own making, viz. the cult 
of the principles to which she hersel owes her 
resurrection. 

But the Dead, re-awakened by the thunder of 
the great struggle for liberty and the independence 
of peoples, have spoken. From their forgotten 
page they have spoken of " Victory " and " Re- 
newal." A nation does not renew itself by 
turning back the course of history, by straying 
in beaten paths where everything has already been 
said, experienced and judged, in paths which lead 
inevitably to grim expiations, such as we are all 
at this moment both sharing and witnessing. 

The work of centuries — says Mazzini — cannot go 
backward. It goes onward on the shining path, 
traced by the great dead whom we feel to be nearer 
to us to-day than they ever were to their contem- 
poraries. Upon the reply which Italy will give to 
her Dead who still speak to her, to the voice of her 
Martyrs and Prophets, will depend perhaps not so 
much the fate of the Jugoslavs, as the authority 
and prestige of Italy herself in the counsels of Europe 
reborn. 



264 



APPENDIXES 



APPENDIXES 

APPENDIX I 

AUSTRIA AND CROATIA 

Memorandum by N. Tommaseo. 1 

1859 

Austria's shrewdness consisted in exploiting the 
various nationalities subject to her, by setting one against 
another, by exaggerating divergencies or creating them. 

The Italians think that the nation in which Austria's 
greatest material strength reposes is bound to her 
for ever, and their own irreconcilable enemy. This 

1 Tommaseo Niccolo ; writer, scholar, thinker, distinguished 
Italo-Slav politician, born at Sebenico (Sibenik), Dalmatia in 1802, 
died at Florence on May 1, 1874. He played a notable part in the 
Italian movement for unification. Together with Daniel Manin 
he was imprisoned in Venice, liberated by the revolution of March 
17, 1848, and then became a member of the Provisional Government 
of Venice, Minister of Public Instruction and Ambassador of the 
Venetian Republic in Paris. After the capitulation of Venice, he 
took refuge in Corfu, whence he went to Turin, where he refused 
a Government post offered him by Cavour and began his famous 
Dizionario universale della lingua italiana. Later on he published 
his Dictionary of Synonyms. In 1S61 Tommaseo, then completely 
blind, retired to Florence, where he died in 1874 surrounded by uni- 
versal respect, after refusing a Senator's seat in Rome and every 
other mark of distinction. He was a man of utter spiritual inde- 
pendence, profoundly religious, and one of the most important 

267 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

is a mistaken idea, fatal to both nations, and it must 
cease to exist. 

The Croats have both ancient and fairly recent memories 
of national rights trampled underfoot by Austria, of 
promises violated by her ; and Austria's obligations 
towards them are only one reason the more why the 
apparent ties which bind them to her should be broken. 

National Rights Flouted. 

At the General Assembly in January 1527, the Croat 
nation, not being conquered by force of arms, nor driven 
to this step by internal dissensions nor yet by dynastic 
considerations, accepted Ferdinand I as its King, but 
under the compact that he would uphold the Con- 
stitution which had received the sanction of former 
assemblies, and that he would uphold the communal 
liberties, immunities and privileges. 

In 1712 the Pragmatic Sanction offered the nation a 
fresh, solemn opportunity of securing the diplomatic 
recognition of its proper rights, and of causing Austria 
once more to promise their observance. Since then 
this promise has been confirmed under oath by every 
Sovereign. 

As regards the rest of the nationalities, the Constitu- 
tion of March 1849 (which aimed at the appearance 

among Italian writers of the nineteenth century. He tried his 
hand at every form of literature, and was one of the founders of 
the celebrated Nuova Antologia in Florence. He is the author 
of about 200 works. His introduction to the correspondence of 
Pasquale Paoli, his Treatise on St. Catherine of Siena, his literary 
and critical essays, poems and memoirs, are an inexhaustible 
source of inspiration upon which the new generation of Italian 
literary men has drawn very largely. 

His Slav activity in politics and literature is very briefly 
indicated in these pages. 

268 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of a fresh obligation freely undertaken in the interest 
of the nationalities), was a mere delusion ; but as regards 
Croatia it was an act of disloyalty, since with one blow 
it destroyed her civil and political guarantees. 

But the Liberal mask of 1849 was dropped as soon 
as the danger was past, and by the repeal of the December 
Constitution of 1851, Croatia was left without the rights 
recently promised, and without her ancient liberties 
which had made of her a nation. 

Thus Austria herself had broken the bonds of the 
Pragmatic Sanction and infringed the contract of 1527. 
It is clear that she is the real author of a revolution 
opposed to the laws of civilization and morality ; that 
the nation she flouted and duped has thereby re-acquired 
its original rights and may demand them in the face of 
all Europe. 

Violated Promises. 

It is superfluous to recall the promises which, under 
the stress of fear, Austria made in 1848 to some of the 
leaders of our nation. These promises not only remained 
unfulfilled, but became a humiliation and cause of un- 
popularity to those who believed in them. It should 
be remembered that in 1848 the Croats decided in a 
General Assembly that the whole of their armies should 
be recalled from Italy, but those who believed in 
Austria's lying promises so contrived that the decree of 
the national will was ignored. 

Everybody knows the power of discipline in regular 
forces, and especially among a simple people accustomed 
to obey its leaders ; and that a soldier, however persuaded 
of the iniquity of a war, will, when it comes to the 
proof, fight bravely to avoid at all costs the imputation 
of treachery or cowardice. To this we must add the 

269 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

fomentation of mutual hatred not only by Austria, 
who profited by it, but even by those who stood to 
suffer most by it. 

It would be well to recall yet one other painful memory, 
not by way of recrimination, but rather in order that 
two peoples may cease from mutual recrimination and 
learn from henceforth to pity one another and to 
remember. 

On 29th July, 1845, the results of the elections in the 
county of Zagreb failed to conform with the wishes of 
the Austrian Government. The populace shouted, 
" Long live the Constitution ! Long live the Nation ! " 
when the rejoicing crowds were surrounded in the square 
by soldiers who fired indiscriminately upon women, 
old men and children. Twenty-two were killed and 
more than sixty wounded. The son of a highly placed 
official, a handsome and high-spirited youth, was hit 
in the chest by six bullets, as he was in the act of pulling 
a political adversary out of danger. Next day the 
twenty-two victims were borne to their graves with 
solemn pomp in mournful triumph, the Austrians not 
daring to affront the wrathful grief of the people or the 
body of armed frontier Militia which had arrived in 
haste. But those Austrian soldiers (I repeat that I 
am not saying this for the sake of recrimination) belonged 
to the Wimpffen Regiment ; they were Italians. May 
the lessons of the past give us a wiser future, and one 
more honourable to all of us. 

Historic Memories. 

A book will shortly appear, in French, which will 
demonstrate the facts indicated here and others relevant 
to the subject. It will prove by historic documents 
how much the nation, which is by the ignorant excluded 

270 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

as barbarous from European civilization, has done and 
might yet achieve. It will tell how its coming was 
announced by victory over the Avars, the redoubtable 
enemies of civilization in the sixth and seventh centuries ; 
how it was the first to resist the cruel invasions of the 
Franks ; how in the thirteenth century the Tartars, 
after having overrun Russia, Poland and Hungary, 
found their grave in Croatia, which was as much as life 
was worth to the nations who thus escaped the invading 
torrent ; how in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
it formed a dyke against Ottoman barbarism, thus 
earning the title of antemurale of Christianity. 

And for these services, and for the ancient unhappiness 
it has suffered from the Austrian Government — which 
never did anything to ameliorate its condition, but made 
a fine art of keeping it divided, despised and hated — 
I trust and hope that this nation, which has steadily 
grown to a full consciousness of its proper rights and 
duties, will on the day of its resurrection receive from 
the Governments and peoples of civilized Europe fraternal 
loyalty and support. 

N. Tommaseo, Secondo Esilio, iii. 357-360. 



271 



APPENDIX II 
DALMATIA 

Population according to the Official Census of 1910. 



District. 


Total 
Number. 


Serbo- 
Croat3. 


Italians. 


Benkovac 


i 

17,262 


17,192 


52 


Kistanje 


10,648 


10,635 


13 


Obrovac 


16,144 


16,118 


19 


Budva 


6,707 


6,182 


8 


Ercegnovi (Castelnuovo) 


9,282 


8,601 


153 


Kotor (Cattaro) 


14.427 


12,772 


348 


Perast 


5,598 


4,920 


22 


Blato 


13.156 


I3,H7 


6 


Korcula (Curzola) 


8.472 


8,039 


430 


Peljesac (Sabioncello) 


8,067 


8,058 


8 


Imocki 


42,086 


42,018 


46 


Dniis 


24.434 


24,310 


90 


Knin 


30.5 2 


30,343 


96 


Starigrad (Cittavecchia) 


I3.303 


13,034 


254 


Hvar (Lesina) 


3.558 


3,306 


240 


Vis (Lissa) 


10,041 


9,939 


92 


Makarska. 


16,287 


16,145 


117 


Vrhgorac 


11,362 


n,358 


-— 


Metkovic 


15-475 


15,413 


32 


Dubrovnik (Ragusa) 


19,481 


18,153 


301 


Cavtat (Ragusavecchia) 


9.727 


9,706 


16 


Ston (Stagno) 


9,424 


9,393 


9 


Sv. Petar (San Pietro) (Brae) . . 


22,865 


22,364 


265 


Skradin (Scardona) 


",599 


11,525 


66 


Sibenik 


37-735 


36,095 


873 


Tjesno (Stretto) 


8,324 


8,292 


29 


Sinj 


43,3i8 


43,oo8 


106 


Vrlika 


13,703 


13,696 


5 


OmiS (Almissa) 


16,604 


16,571 


28 


Split (Spalato) 


52,864 


50,514 


2,090 


Trogir (Trail) 


29,041 


28,784 


239 


Rab (Arbe) 


5,083 


4, 8 99 


151 


Pag 


7,450 


7,426 


23 


Zadar (Zara) 


62,199 


49,915 


ii,574 


Biograd (Zaravecchia) 


8,627 


8,598 


20 


Total number 


634,855 


610,669 


18,028 



The rest of the population consists of 3,081 Germans and 3,077 of 
other nationalities, mostly soldiers. 

272 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Returns of the Elections on the Basis of Universal 
Suffrage in 191 i and 1907. 



Districts. 


Total 
Number of 
Electors. 


Croat 
Candi- 
dates. 


Right 
Hand 
Candi- 
dates. 


Italian 
Candi- 
dates. 


I. 
1911 

a. Rab (Arbe) 

b. Pag (Pago) 

c. Zadar (Zara) 

d . Biograd (Zaravecchia) . . 


1,231 

1,555 

13,304 

1,657 


BoreUi 
169 
136 

1.747 
860 


Don 

Prodan 

569 

509 

3,602 

353 


Boxich 
32 
335 

3.451 
IO 


1907 


17.747 
15.881 


2,912 
2,996 


5,034 
5,079 


3.828 
3.076 


II. 

1911 

a. Sibenik 

b. Tjesno (Stretto) 

c. Skradin (Scardona) 


8,624 
1,900 
2,273 


Dubo- 

kovic 

2,138 

378 

928 


Dulibi6 
3.213 
843 
594 


112 

6 

21 


1907 

a, b, 


12,797 
11,609 


3,444 
2,542 


4.650 
1,083 


139 


III. 

1911 

a. Drnis 

b. Trogir (Trail) 

c. La Commune de Promina 

(district Knin) 


5,899 
6,35i 

1,205 


Dr. 

Ivcevic 
1,252 
3.075 

228 


Dr. 

Krstelj 

2,614 

1,019 

761 


? 

13 
339 


1907 

a, b, c 


13.455 
12,561 


4,655 
5,730 


4,394 
282 


352 



273 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Returns of the Elections on the Basis of Universal 
Suffrage in 191 i and 1907 — continued. 



Districts. 


Total 

Number of 

Electors. 


Croat 
Candi- 
dates. 


Right 
Hand 
Candi- 
dates. 


Italian 
Candi- 
dates. 


IV. 
1911 

b. Vrlika 


10,248 
3,183 


Dr. 

Mazzi 
3,307 
1,354 


Dr. 

Sesardic 
4,209 
627 


— 


1907 

a, b . . 


13.431 
12,740 

II,90I 
IO,925 


4,661 
2,077 


4,836 
6,937 


— 


V. 

1911 

Split (Spalato) 

1907 


Dr. 

Smod- 
laka 
4,4°7 

4,170 


— 


? 
538 


VI. 

1911 

a. Imocki 

b. Omi§ (Almissa) 


IO,457 
3,887 


— 


V. Peric 
1,360 
389 


89 


1907 

a, b 


M,344 
I3,4 62 


— 


1,749 
4,206 


69 


VII. 

1911 

a. Hvar (Lesina) 

b. Via (Liesa) 

c. Brae (Brazza) 

d. Starigrad 


1,154 
2,205 

4-257 
2,919 


Dr. 

Tresic- 
Pavicic 
367 
851 
i,54i 
1,398 


Don 

Bojanic 
21 
192 

1,135 
188 


? 

76 

77 

79 

352 


1907 

a, b, c, d 


IO,535 
IO,299 


4,157 
4,224 


1,536 
2,349 


584 



274 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Returns of the Elections on the Basis of Universal 
Suffrage in 1911 and 1907 — continued. 



District. 


Total 

Number of 

Electors. 


Croat 
Candi- 
dates. 


Risht 
Hand 
Candi- 
dates. 


Italian 
Candi- 
dates. 


VIIT. 


Dr. 


Dr 
Drinko- 




1911 

a. Makarska 


3.440 


Cingrija 
975 


vi6 
1,380 


— 


b. Vrhgorac 


2,585 


1,349 


466 


— 


c. Metkovic 


3.633 


969 


1,286 


— 


d. Peljesac . . 


1.747 


776 


214 


— 


e. The Commune of Ston 


1,346 


432 


376 


— 




12,751 


4.5oi 


3.722 




1907 










a, b, c, d, e . . 


12,028 


3.263 


J.475 




IX. 




Dr. 


Dr. 
Cvili- 




1911 




Biankini 


cevic 




a. Dubrovnik 


4,140 


1,192 


666 


141 


b. Korcula . . 


2,239 


56i 


238 


183 








4i 


5 




2,391 


43o 


326 


60 


e. Ston 


613 


262 


28 


— 


/. The Commune of Orebic 


698 


153 


n 


6 




13,103 


4,768 


1,310 


395 


1907 










a,b,c,d,e,f 


12,637 


4.426 


1. 3io 


~~~ 



275 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Returns of the Elections on the Basis of Universal 
Suffrage in 191 i and 1907 — continued. 



District. 


Total 
Number of 
Electors. 


Serbian 
Party 
Candi- 
dates. 


Right 
Hand 
Candi- 
dates. 


Italian 
Candi- 
dates. 


X. 

1911 

a. Benkovac 

b. Kistanj e 

c. Obrovac 

d. The Commune of Knin 


3-44 8 
2,204 

3.671 

6,073 


Dr. 
Baljak 
1,145 

1,044 
1,203 
3,061 


? 
710 

31 

273 

9 


. 


1907 

a, b, c, d 


I5,4l6 
H.556 


6,543 
5,250 


1,023 


— 


XI. 

1911 

a. Kotor 

d. Ercegnovi 


3.383 
1,456 
1,782 
2,112 


Dr. 

Vukotic 

1,359 

412 

390 

664 


Dr. 

Sardelid 

868 

364 
365 
565 


? 
22 

I 

3 


1907 

a, b, c, d 


8.733 
5,878 


2,825 
2,558 


2,182 
1,898 


26 



276 



APPENDIX III 

ZARA AND THE SLAV NATIONAL MOVEMENT 

The events of 1848 roused Dalmatia from her apathy ; 
but the awakening from the long sleep of the Venetian 
era was by no means an Italian awakening, and, incredible 
though it might seem, were it not eloquently proved by 
facts, it was precisefy Zara, the one-time seat of the 
Venetian Government, the city which in '48 had already 
been Austrian for half a century, though Italian in 
speech and inveterately Lombardo-Venetian in custom. 
Zara, as to its intellectual part, awoke to find itself 
Slav. So much so that the Dalmatian patriot Stefan 
I vice vie wrote to a friend, " Nakic, the Mayor of Zara, 
is a Slav and a Slav banner-bearer " (cf. L. C. Pavisid : 
Life of Stefan Iviievic). Tommaseo was of exactly the 
same opinion. 

That very year, in the month of May, the first weekly 
paper, La Dalmazia Costituzionale, was founded in Zara. 
The paper did not bear a pronouncedly political character, 
but still the principal problems of public right were 
discussed in its pages. It contained articles which were 
undeniably Slav in feeling, and advocated the union of 
Dalmatia and Croatia, while respecting the old intellectual 
ties with the Italian people. 

Its contemporary, the Zora Dalmatinska, Kuzmanic's 
paper, which was founded in Zara in 1844, openly upheld 
the cause of Slav brotherhood and the need for the 

277 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dalmato-Croatian union. Thus we read : " The barren 
sea divides Dalmatia from Italy ; on the other hand 
the fertile earth unites Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina 
and Croatia in one territorial unit, wherein live our 
people and our language ; blood is not water ; we 
must be all the more resolved to further the unity of 
our fatherland and to repel every attempt to make our 
people subject to isolated groups of foreigners." 
Stefan Ivicevic sang : 

" Faith and God ; 'tis but one village 
That from Save to sea we would be." 

In May 1848, the Czechs convoked a General Congress 
of all Austrian Slavs in Prague, as a protest against the 
German Assembly in Frankfort. To the invitation ad- 
dressed to the Slav patriots of Dalmatia, the latter replied 
by a meeting in Zara and a message expressing in face 
of the hegemony meditated in Germany the unflinching 
purpose of living united with their Slav brothers under 
the constitutional regime of the Austrian Sovereign. 
The signatories regretted that they were unable to send 
a delegate to Prague, owing to the fact that the invitation 
had reached them too late ; but that they so far endorsed 
all the resolutions of the Majority in the Assembly ; 
and begged the latter to take the most efficacious measures 
possible to ensure security and free development for the 
seventeen million Austrian Slavs in the common State. 
This manifesto was dated from Zara, 21st May, 1848, 
and signed by all Dalmatians of note, among whom I 
will merely mention A. Kuzmanic, Bozidar Petranovic, 
Stefan Ivicevic, Anton Beitic, Count Dede-Mitrovic, 
Count John Pavlovid, Biagio di Bona, Count Francesco 
Borelli, Count Cosimo Begna-Possedaria, Dr. Filippi, 
Demetrio Medovic, Lodovico de Lantana, John Sundecid, 

278 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Dr. Joseph Manzin, Dr. Cesare de Pellegrini, Sigismund 
de Grazio, etc. 

When the Croatian Diet appealed to the Dalmatian 
brothers in race on ioth June, 1848, for "union in fraternal 
bonds, for the common glory and advantage ; " and 
when later on the Croats invited the Dalmatian Munici- 
palities to send representatives to Zagreb to discuss the 
desired union, it was not Zara, but Spalato, which took 
up an absolutely hostile attitude. 

The Municipality of Zara passed a resolution, temporiz- 
ing but sympathetic in tone. As a matter of fact, many 
Nationalists considered that this accorded best with 
the sentiment of the greater part of the population 
which was not yet fully prepared for the decisive 
step. 

The Municipality of Zara, in fact, excused itself for 
not being able to send representatives ; not on account 
of being radically opposed to the union, but because it 
considered the latter inopportune at the moment, and 
held that a General Assembly of the Dalmatian people 
was alone entitled to decide upon it. Nevertheless, if 
the rights of both parties were equally respected, the 
Municipality declared itself not opposed to union with 
Croatia. As regards the language question, the Munici- 
pality, while admitting the Slav character of the whole 
country, would consider it desirable that, in consideration 
of the fact that Italian was the language spoken by the 
educated classes, Dalmatia should be free to regulate 
the language question within her own borders. The 
resolution concluded with the remark that as Dalmatia 
had frequently opposed the pretensions of the Hungarian 
Crown, the province did not, at the moment, desire 
to be annexed to the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, 
which were united with the Kingdom of Hungary. 

279 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Many Serbs, and Croats too, considered the reply of 
the Municipality of Zara both moderate and wise. The 
well-known Serbian writer Matija Ban, a bitter enemy 
of the Magyars on account of their oppression of the 
Slavs, even applauded it warmly, and the staunch 
Nationalist Giuseppe Grubisic wrote to a friend that the 
Municipality of Zara " could not have replied more 
wisely." 

The appointment of Jelacic as Governor of Fiume and 
Dalmatia was hailed with joy by the inhabitants of 
Zara. Unfortunately the March Constitution of 1849 
did not unite Fiume with Croatia. Touching Dalmatia, 
it was declared that " the Dalmatian representatives 
would come to an understanding with the Croatian with 
regard to the conditions of the union." But the Abso- 
lutist system, reborn from the ashes of the Revolution, 
hastened to make the Imperial promise a dead letter. 

Dalmatia was represented by ten deputies in the 
Constituent Assembly of 1849. At one of the first meet- 
ings Petranovic and Ivicevic proposed the introduction 
of Illyrian schools in Dalmatia. Italian, however, was 
still to be considered obligatory. Simultaneously, many 
patriots of Zara addressed a similar demand as regards 
the elementary schools to the Ministry, and also requested 
the introduction of the study of the Illyrian ancient and 
modern languages and literature in the Lycees (secondary 
schools). 

The gymnasia (classical secondary schools), including 
that of Zara, opposed this demand, but expressed the 
wish " that the study of one Illyrian language, which 
must be considered of capital importance, should be made 
obligatory, so that officials might be able to express 
themselves in the native language of litigants." To this 
the Government consented. 

280 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

In 1849 Kuzmanic founded a political and literary 
society of a pronouncedly Jugoslav character in Zara, 
the Slavjanska Lifia (the Slav Linden), whose programme 
included the claims to Trieste and Fiume. The Slav- 
janska Lipa had a membership of two hundred, but 
after existing for only five months, it was compelled to 
dissolve at the time when every Liberal movement 
was paralysed by the successful counter-offensive of 
Absolutism in January 1850. Even the Provisional 
Constitution was revoked by the Imperial Patent of 
nth December, 1851. 

1S51-1867. 

During this period every Liberal movement was in 
abeyance. A cast-iron bureaucratic regime prevailed, 
which, to maintain itself in power, laid the foundations 
of an irreconcilable Autonomism after the Lombardo- 
Venetian type, and not at all in keeping with Tommaseo's 
idea. The bureaucrats realized that there would be 
nothing left for it but to abdicate, if the annexation 
became an accomplished fact together with the Liberal 
programme of Hungarian decentralization entailed b}' 
this step. 

There was only one newspaper, the Osservatore Dalmata, 
which had taken the place of the Gazzetta di Zara. It 
was edited in two languages. The Italian part was 
edited by Giacomo Chiudina, and eventually by the 
notorious Lapenna. The edition of the Serbo-Croat 
part was first entrusted to Kuzmanic, then to the poet 
Kazali, and finally to the Serbian poet Sundecic, a native 
of Dalmatia. 

In 1851, however, Kuzmanic started a juridic review, 
entitled Pravdonosa (the Legis ator), in which Danilo 
published a study on the Constitution of Poljica, and 

281 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Vr6evi6 one on the Constitution of Grbalj (Bocche di 
Cattaro). This journal only survived for one year. 

There was also an agricultural review, the Poucitelj- 
tezacki (the Teacher of Agriculture), but this, too, 
only ran for two years. 

The only break in the intellectual and political silence 
of this period was the publication in 1857 of a short 
Italian poem in six cantos, entitled " The Slav Mother," 
by a Zaratine poet, Luigi Fichert. 

The subject was one of those which have been hackneyed 
to death ; the traditional Montenegrin hero who is 
killed by the Turks, and the mother who brings up her 
son to be his father's avenger. Indeed it is not the 
subject of the poem, but the spirit pervading it, that 
calls for attention. This spirit is a pure homage to 
Serbia, to Slavism, to Liberty ; to Serbia, " mother of 
heroes." 

" Where the new 
Psean rises which Slavia evokes 
From the chords of the warrior Gusla." 

These Aleardian verses — but rather more virile than 
those of the poet of the " Lettere a Maria " — thrilled the 
Dalmatians to the core. The little poem was soon 
translated into Serbian and ran through many editions. 
The last was that of Ferdinando Ongania, published 
upon the occasion of the marriage of the Prince 
of Naples, now King Victor Emmanuel III. This 
apotheosis of Serbia and Slavdom also originated 
in Zara. 

In 1859 the author of the " Slav Mother " founded a 
literary journal, the Dalmatian Review, devoted to 
a better understanding between Italians and Serbo- 
Croats. This review only enjoyed nine months of life. 
It was one of the few gleams of light in those days, 

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DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

isolated attempts, soon smothered in the stifling atmo- 
sphere of Austro-Dalmatian bureaucracy, but neverthe- 
less valuable tokens which disprove the legend of Zara's 
inviolable " Italianita." Soon afterwards these tokens 
multiplied and became definite proofs. 

1860-1870. 

The great Constitutional struggle initiated by the 
October Diploma of i860 had its origin in Zara, the 
great general headquarters of the national Slav party 
of Klaic, Pulic, Danilo and others. The Voce Dalmatica 
(Voice of Dalmatia) was founded in June i860. The pro- 
moters of this paper belonged to the two (subsequently) 
irreconcilable political parties (political only at first, 
and at a rather later date national also). Michael Klaic, 
Giovanni Danilo, and Niccolo de Gradi, the champions 
of Slav nationalism, worked on the same editorial 
staff, together with Count Cosimo di Begna, Ferrari- 
Cupilli and Vincenzo Duplancic. This concord, however, 
was not of long duration. The Voce Dalmatica published 
an article on the register of landed property which, 
according to the author, ought to have been drawn 
up in Italian. Klaic contested this claim in a reply 
published by the Serbo-Croatian Supplement of the 
Osservatore Dalmato. The dispute with the Voce 
grew acrimonious. Finally, with the advent of Schmer- 
ling to power (after the February Patent of 1861), 
Sundecic resigned his post as editor of the supplement 
Glasnik ; the Osservatore abandoned the attitude of 
neutrality it had carefully observed under the Federalist 
Ministry of Goluchowski and initiated a fierce campaign 
against the annexation and the annexationists. 

Soon afterwards the foundation of the Nazionale 
was decided upon at a series of conferences in Spalato, 

283 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

and the Municipal Council of Zagreb conferred the 
honorary citizenship of that town upon Nodilo, the first 
chief editor, in token of its complete accord with the 
Dalmatian national policy. 

At the same time the " Narodna Citaonica " (National 
News Room) was founded in Zara, in connection with 
the secession of the Nationalists from the " House of 
Nobles," a relic of the Venetian days, where the nobles 
and high officials of Zara used to meet. The 
" Citaonica " was, above all things, a democratic 
institution, and admitted Croats and Serbs. The 
original executive Committee consisted of Count Manfred 
Borelli, Dr. Francesco Danilo, Count Dede Jankovic, 
Dr. Giovanni Medovid and Dr. Giuseppe Antonietti. 
In his inaugural speech (delivered in Italian), Dr. 
Danilo, as president, assigned to the " Citaonica " 
the task of closing the gulf then existing between the 
cities and the mass of the Dalmatian people. It was 
the mission of the " Narodna Citaonica " to apply the 
balm of love and wisdom to this grave evil, and to 
close up the gulf created by indolence and ill-will, 
by cultivating closer ties between the various classes 
of the sons of one country, and in especial, by spreading 
the knowledge of the national language. 

At a ball given in the Teatro Nobile, a gay assembly 
of more than five hundred people enthusiastically 
applauded a Montenegrin dance and a national chorus. 
The little " Citaonica " in the " Calle del Sale " began 
with 196 members and fifty papers and periodicals in 
Serbo-Croat, Italian, French, English, Greek and German. 

In 1864 the new management solemnly celebrated 
the millennium of the two Slav apostles, the brothers 
SS. Cyril and Method. 

These were the beginnings of a national institution 

284 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in Zara which, during the ensuing decade, was not so 
much a news room as the general headquarters of the 
National Slav party, whence instructions were issued 
for all the elections, both Municipal and for the Provincial 
Diet, and indeed for all the patriotic activity which brought 
about the first triumph of the party in 1870. 

From the very first the Austrian Government assumed 
an attitude of pronounced hostility towards this centre 
of Democracy and Liberalism. In order to strike at 
the society, it began by prosecuting its chief promoters. 
Klaic and Danilo were dismissed from the Civil Service. 
This iniquitous proceeding was the signal for the fight. 
The citizens of Zara subscribed a sum for a gold medal 
for the prosecuted patriots. The subscribers' list included 
the names of Giuseppe Armanini, Advocate Keller, 
Giovanni Medovic, Pietro Paparella and Duplancid, 
editor-in-chief of the Voce Dalmatica. These even- 
tually went over to the camp of ihe Governmental 
Autonomist party, whose programme aimed solely at 
the isolation of Dalmatia under the Viennese regime 
in an Italian guise. 

In 1865 the " Citaonica " abstained from taking part 
in the festivities in connection with the jubilee of the 
Governor Baron Mamula, in order to signify its protest 
against the electoral abuses whereby a parliamentary 
majority could be maintained which was contrary to 
the character and the aspirations of the Dalmatian people. 
The Government now declared war upon the " Citaonica.'' 
Lapenna called upon all Government officials who were 
members to send in their resignations. All gave way 
except Antonietti, Gergurevid, Boglic, Danilo, Giov. 
de Dominis and Giovanni Nikolic. The official paper 
insulted the society. The latter sued for libel, but 
lost its case. 

285 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The breach between the Liberal Union and the Govern- 
ment Autonomist party aggravated the situation, which 
led to the conflict between Lapenna and Bajamonti, 
in which the latter had the support of the Slav party. 
In Zara the Liberals were chiefly represented by Pietro 
Abelic, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and the 
Advocate Giacomo Giljanovic, who strenuously cham- 
pioned the policy of an equal footing for both languages 
and an understanding with the Slav party, as otherwise 
the Italian language should be finally expelled from those 
shores. At the municipal election the " Liberals " 
and "Nationalists" put forward the candidature of 
Advocate Dr. Filippi in opposition to Count Begna, 
Lapenna's partisan. Begna was re-elected, but solely 
thanks to the vote of the Austrian officials. Of 395 
electors, 303 were officials who voted en bloc for Lapenna's 
man. Of the 92 votes recorded by independent citizens, 
the Liberal National candidate had 80 and Begna only 
twelve. By this time the accusations of Panslavism had 
already begun. The President of the Advocates' Chamber 
in Spalato, Radman, refused to inscribe the name of 
Dr. Manger on the rolls, giving as his reason that " Manger 
was imbued with Jugoslav ideas, which constituted a 
menace to the existence of the State." The Chamber of 
Zara desired to protest against this prejudiced procedure 
on the part of the Chamber of Spalato, and the Liberal 
Autonomists, Giljanovic and Filippi, signed the protest. 

In 1866 the Autonomist paper 77 Dalmata was 
founded under the editorship of the brilliant publicist 
Enrico Matkovic. The paper pursued a Slav programme, 
but politically its programme was negative. " Even 
as we shall combat to the uttermost the ideas of those few 
whose aspirations are centred in Italy or Germany, so we 
will with equal inflexibility set our faces against the blind 

286 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

impatience of those who desire annexation to Croatia ; " 
adding, however, that if it were for the good of the 
fatherland, the paper would be the first to demand the 
annexation. 

As regards the linguistic question, II Dalmata upheld 
the need for the Italian language as the intellectual 
medium, but at the same time declared that it would 
strive to spread a knowledge of the Serbo-Croat tongue 
among the youth of the country, this language being 
" far more necessary to us." 

The Dalmata remained faithful to this programme 
for many years. In 1871 Simeone Ferrari-Cupilli, 
Matkovic's successor, re-published it both in Italian 
and in Serbo-Croatian, and proclaimed the need for 
" linguistic freedom." In November of that year 
Matkovic rejoined the editorial staff and, through the 
medium of the paper, insisted on the duty of " working 
for the increase of popular instruction, and the study of 
the Slav tongue." 

Incidentally the Dalmata published feuilletons in 
Serbo-Croatian. Even under Arturo Colautti, the 
paper continued to be bi-lingual when he took over the 
management in 1872. Not until 1874 did Colautti for 
the first time in the annals of the Dalmata speak 
of an " Italian nationality " in Dalmatia, when he did 
so in connection with a speech made in Parliament 
by Klaic. But even then the Dalmata did not look 
upon itself as the organ of an " Italian party," only as 
that of an Autonomist party. And during a heated 
electoral contest for the Vienna Parliament, Lapenna, 
the undisputed leader of the Dalmatian autonomists, 
protested fiercely in the Dalmata against the insinua- 
tions of Croatian agents that the Autonomist party was 
an " Italian party." In contrast to this moderation, 

287 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the President of the Court of Appeal, Defacis, in 1885, 
applied the insulting term " Scrovatian language " z 
to the language of the overwhelming majority of the 
population, the language extolled by Tommaseo and 
respected by the founders of the Autonomist Idea, who 
loved to call themselves Slavo-Dalmatians, the language 
praised by the sinister Lapenna himself. 

Let us not forget the meetings in the " Scholars' 
Kitchen," so-called, those brilliant gatherings, frequented 
by Count Niccolo Pozza, the Ragusan noble, the Orthodox 
Monk Milos, Giovanni Vrankovic of the Islands, Prof. 
Boglic, Klaid of Ragusa, Richard Beden, Simeon Stermic 
of Valcrociata, Afrid and Nicholas Kati6, the artist 
Professor Smiric, Giljanovid, Rougier and Manzin — all 
Zaratines who subsequently passed over to the Italian 
camp. In those days they were all Slavs ; their aspirations 
were somewhat confused, it is true, but frankly national in 
essentials. They spoke Italian and thought Slav. There 
were no " nuclei," no " infiltrations," no " denationaliza- 
tions " ; they were all friends together and all inspired 
by the common hatred of the Centralist and bureaucratic 
regime. But in the end this regime gained the victory 
over the Liberal Autonomist elements. Their defection 
brought about the lamentable rift which facilitated the 
constitution of the Italian party, which was both favoured 
and desired by the Government, which was always pleased 
to assume that Russia was an accomplice of the Slav 
movement ! 

In March 1870 Zara was at the point of being won 
over altogether to the Slav cause, and certainly this 
would have happened but for the terrorism of the 
Austrian Government. 

1 Language of the land of sows ; of course it is also a coarse 
word-play upon the word " Serbo-Croatian." 

288 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The municipal elections took place in March. In 
the third district, in spite of a heated contest which 
degenerated into a free fight in the Piazza dei Signori, 
the Slav candidates were successful, and the following 
were returned : Advocate Simeon de Stermic, Dr. 
Giovanni Medovic, Pietro Antunovic, Giuseppe de 
Lantana, Dr. Francesco Danilo, Giovanni Glisic, Count 
Giuseppe Borisi, Dr. Giuseppe Pastrovic, Giacomo 
Pivac, Roberto di Lagarde, Teodor Jurkovic and 
Antonio Vukic. 

In the second district the National party had put forward 
five Liberal candidates, among them Pietro Abelic and 
Advocate Giacomo Giljanovid. The Liberals were 
successful. 

In the first district the list of Autonomist Government 
candidates, with Lapenna at their head, was successful, 
thanks to the intervention of the Government. 

Thus in 1870 the Municipal Council of Zara included 
several Serbo-Croat members, belonging to the best 
families of the city of Zara, and if the union had only 
persisted, the legend of an Italian Zara would have 
been even officially disproved. 

In that very year, 1870, the Chamber of Commerce 
returned a Slav, Dr. Antonio Bersa, for the Diet. The 
rural communes returned two Nationalists, viz. Dr. 
Giuseppe Antonietti and Dr. Giuseppe Pastrovic. 

The deplorable breach in 1873 and the foundation of 
the Zemljak l prepared the ground for Lapenna's 
revanche. And indeed, in the municipal elections of 
1874, under Lapenna's electoral terror, the Serbo-Croats 
lost the third division, and in the first and second, finding 
themselves left in the lurch by the Liberals, they did 
not even put forward candidates. 

1 The Government paper. 

289 T 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

With the foundation of the Avvenire in Spalato 
in 1875, the conflict became even more acute. The 
Avvenire was the first to sound the note of division : 
" In Dalmatia exist two well-defined nationalities — the 
Italian and the Slav." And the German deputy Keller 
repeated the formula in the Vienna Parliament. 

Thus the metamorphosis of the Autonomist party, 
or at least part of it, into the purely Italian party dates 
from 1874-1875. The " Divide et Impera " principle 
had in fact, thanks to inflexible perseverance, scored a 
signal triumph. 

However in 1875 the constituency of the most highly 
taxed citizens of Zara, which became vacant owing to 
the resignation of Keller, fell into the hands of the Slavs. 
Dr. Antonietti, the National candidate, who had succeeded 
in conciliating the small party of the Zemljaci, obtained 
102 votes, as against 52 for the Autonomist candidate 
Piperata. In 1875 there was a Serbo-Croat dramatic 
season at the Teatro Nobile. 

The Autonomists of Zara were opposed to the campaign 
of the Avvenire in Spalato. During the Herzegovinian 
Insurrection, and the war that followed in 1876, 
the Garibaldian Committee was in close touch with the 
Zara National Committee, which used to meet at the 
" Citaonica." A distinguished Italian parliamentarian, 
Roberto Galli, manager of the Tempo in Venice, and 
subsequently a member of Crispi's Cabinet, was the 
confidential emissary between the Garibaldian Committee 
and the Zara National Committee. It was he who nego- 
tiated the transmission of arms and munitions and 
transported Garibaldian volunteers to Zara with orders 
to report themselves to the National Committee. 

The Serbo-Croat conflict (1879) was adroitly exploited 
by the Italian party. 

290 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Zara began to be invaded by Germanism. The 
Dalmata hailed its reappearance with joy, and in 
1881 predicted the opening of a German gymnasium, 
" the want of which," said the paper, " had long been 
felt." 

Followed energetic protests on the part of the Nation- 
alists against the methods of Governor Jovanovic's 
Government, and especially against the intrusion of 
Germanism in Zara. The nomination of several Germans 
for appointments in the Lieutenancy of Zara roused 
the satiric vein of Deputy Vrankovic, who opened a 
brilliant campaign in the Nazionale, now become the 
Narodni List. 

" And so," he wrote, " for the second time the Crusaders 
have invaded the ducal city. The first time they leapt 
ashore from the galleys of the nonaganerian Enrico 
Dandolo, bristling with steel, to storm our vainly de- 
fended bastions ; the second time they have landed 
quietly from Austrian Lloyd steamers, perfumed and 
groomed and armed with their salary lists. The first 
time they commemorated their sojourn by erecting 
the cathedral site of St. Anasthasia, this time they will 
build the tower of Babel.' 

Just one example of political defection. Dr. Giovanni 
Medovic began his political career as an active member 
of the National Serbo-Croat Committee, and in 1877 
he stood as National candidate for the ward of the most 
highly taxed citizens of Zara. In consequence of the 
Serbo-Croat conflict, he went over to the Serbian camp, 
being himself an Orthodox Serb, and severed his con- 
nection with the " Citaonica " ; in 1885 he deserted from 
the Serbian camp, declared himself an Italian Autonomist 
and voted for Lapenna. His son Demetrio, who was 
educated in Trieste, is to-day a member of the Italian 

291 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Autonomist General Staff in Zara! Giuseppe Hoberth 
and Dr. Antonio Boltura passed through the same 
political evolution. 

In the election for the Provincial Diet in 1885 the 
most violent of the electoral contests in Zara took place 
over the ward of most highly taxed citizens. Candidates : 
Lapenna, for the Autonomists ; Count Manfred Borelli 
for the Nationalists. Part of the Serbian vote was given 
to Lapenna ! The Autonomist Committee mobilized 
all the roughs in Zara, who, reinforced by the Albanians 
of Borgo Erizzo, besieged the hall where the Electoral 
Commission was sitting, and tried by yells, hootings 
and threats of violence to prevent the Nationalist electors 
from entering. The polling continued from nine o'clock 
in the morning till midnight. In spite of frenzied 
agitation and the mobilization of the bureaucratic 
apparatus, Count Borelli was elected. 

We must mention the following Slav institutions 
established in Zara with the help of the Nationalist 
section of the population : The Croat elementary school ; 
the Society for Poor Croat and Serb Students ; the 
Athletic Society (Hrv. Sokol), founded in 1885 with a 
membership of 200 ; the Agrarian Society. In 1898 
a secondary school was opened, in which Croatian was 
the language of instruction. 

In so far as Zara remained the only city in the province 
which refused to accept the national idea, the municipality 
continued to represent the principles of autonomy and 
Italian Nationalism. 

The cause of this is to be sought in the unjust applica- 
tion of the electoral law, and this was mainly due to the 
action of the Austrian Government, which was anxious 
to preserve the Italian status in Zara, in order to keep 
Slav Dalmatia constantly reminded of the possibility 

292 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of raising the question of Italian autonomy whenever 
the Jugoslavs pursued too radical and too Jugoslav 
a policy in the Vienna Parliament. Similarly Bismarck 
made use of the Roman Question as a scarecrow for 
Italy, in order to induce her to become the ally of the 
Central Powers. Thus Austria obtained, in the first 
place, a docile instrument in the capital of the province 
which would prevent the occurrence of Slavophil and 
annexationist demonstrations at the very headquarters 
of the Government, and in the second, the conciliation 
of Italian Irredentism, which kept it from becoming too 
embarrassing to its own Government, and at the same 
time provided Italy with some small satisfaction to set 
off against the many moral sacrifices she had been 
compelled to offer as a holocaust to Austria's policy in 
the East. 

A grave responsibility, however, rests also with the 
Croat party, which gave way to the Government over 
the question of Zara from notions of provincial op- 
portunism, and other more or less tangible economic 
advantages. 

In conclusion of this very brief sketch of the political 
vicissitudes of Zara, let us add that if the Italo-Dalmatians 
have not yet completely disappeared from the political 
scene of the province, they have only Austria to thank 
for it. If Austria had introduced universal suffrage for 
the elections of the Diet, if she had dissolved the 
Municipal Council of Zara and permitted the municipal 
elections to be carried out honestly and according to law 
as she ought to have done, instead of pursuing ulterior 
political ends, there would be no word to-day of Italo- 
Dalmatians, and the most inveterate of them would have 
had to leave the Dalmatian shores in search of other 
platforms for their ill-advised activity. 

293 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

We are fortunately able to reproduce here the electoral 
proclamation of 13th March, 1861, issued by the National 
Committee of Zara, for the elections for the first legislative 
session of the Diet of the Kingdom of Dalmatia. This 
document is a sound testimonial to the vitality, the 
calm self-reliance and dignity of the National party in 
the Dalmatian capital before the advent of the Austrian 
Constitutional era. The proclamation was issued in 
both languages. The text runs as follows : 

To the Electors of the City and Electoral 
District of Zara. 

Citizen Electors ! 

His Majesty I.R.A. has proclaimed it His sovereign 
will that the next Dalmatian Diet, for which you are 
called upon to elect the Deputies, should, above all 
things, devote itself to the choice of the delegates who 
are to adjust the relations of public right between the 
Kingdom of Dalmatia and the Kingdoms of Slavonia 
and Croatia. Vital interests, both national and private, 
depend upon the adjustment of these relations in a 
sense which shall bring us nearer to our Slav brothers ; 
wherefore we call upon you to keep your minds fixed 
chiefly upon this matter in electing the men in whom 
you place your confidence. 

The development of the free national institutions, 
enjoyed of old by the Dalmatian people when it was 
great and glorious, and their modification to suit the 
spirit of progress of the present age, is what ought to 
inspire every one who desires the welfare of the present 
generation and the generations of the future. But 
since, during the course of time, vested interests have 
arisen which may have to suffer by this development 

294 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of the general interest, it must be the special care of the 
men to whom you give your votes, so to reconcile 
these interests that the welfare of all may be ob- 
tained with the least possible disadvantage to the 
individual. 

Our national institutions are based upon the autonomy 
of the Commune ; this autonomy was the strength of our 
ancestors, whereby they left us a rich heritage of wisdom 
and wealth, and it was the bond of union whereby the 
inhabitants of the towns and those of the country formed 
one single people. To regain this strength and restore 
this bond we must bring back this institution into force, 
and call upon the whole nation to take part in our civil 
life. And this can only be done by the use of the national 
language. 

But the introduction of this language into public 
life must be effected slowly and by degrees, so that such 
persons whose subsistence depends upon the use of the 
Italian language, may not find themselves exposed to 
the risk of losing what they have gained and own by 
their labour and trouble. 

Besides this, the Italian language ought always to 
be cultivated as a means of maintaining intellectual 
relations with a people enjoying a civilization superior 
to our own, a nation to which we have been greatly 
indebted hitherto, and whence our art and literature 
have derived so much splendour and honour. 

The judicial institutions and Civil Laws upon which 
the mutual relations of citizens have been based for the 
last half-century ought not to be altered, except in so 
far as they may be improved by judicious reform. They 
present no obstacle to our living a more vigorous life, 
and one more in keeping with the spirit of tbe nation 
to which our people belongs. They are also calculated 

295 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

to permit all Dalmatians without distinction to share 
in this spirit, regardless of birth and condition. 

The awakening of the whole people to national life 
presents the sole means of educating the rural citizen, 
of redeeming him from the slavery of ignorance, the 
source of distress and crime. Then it will become pos- 
sible to extend efficient help to agriculture, the profession 
practised by the greater number of the Dalmatians, 
the profession upon which all depend for their food, 
but chiefly the landed proprietor and the tenant-farmer. 

The renewed prosperity of agriculture will revive 
the professions which are allied to it ; and we shall see 
the present depression giving place to the enterprise 
of a free people intent upon industry and commerce, 
the strength and resource of nations, the genius of modern 
social life. 

Dalmatian mercantile marine, which takes the lead 
in the Mediterranean because of the soundness of its 
vessels and the excellence of its crews — and is moreover 
second to none abroad — will, by the fuller development 
of national relations with our brother peoples, find 
employment and profit at home, instead of being 
compelled, as at present, to seek both in foreign service. 

Zara, this ancient and glorious capital of a province 
of 400,000 inhabitants, will become one of the two capitals 
of a people of more than two millions, united by the 
bond of language, equal liberty, ancient memories and 
common misfortunes. 

No one will presume to deny to Zara the claim to 
become the centre of the judicial magistrature of the 
three united Kingdoms, being, as she is already, the chief 
city of a province where modern legislation has taken 
firm root and is represented by scholarly judicial experts 
and unimpeachable magistrates. Nor, moreover, could 

296 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the repository of the common interests of the inhabitants 
of the Eastern Adriatic shore be transferred to any 
other place. 

Citizen Electors ! 

These are the feelings and opinions of the Com- 
mittee elected by a party of yourselves, in order to 
facilitate the election of the Deputies who are to be 
your representatives in the forthcoming Diet. They 
are the opinions and the feelings which, so the Committee 
holds, ought to guide those to whom you give your votes ! 
Give them, then, your careful consideration. Whoever 
can support them with straightforwardness and courage, 
will be able to discuss and decide upon any subject 
concerning the welfare and prosperity of Dalmatia. 
Let love of your country inspire you ; let faith in its 
future decide you. 

The National Electoral Committee. 

Pietro Antunovic — Pietro Bratanid, Count 
Giuseppe Borisi, Dr. Michael Klaic — Dr. 
Francesco Danilo — de Grisogono — Dr. 
Simeon Bortolazzi — Theodore Jurkovi6 
Dr. Giovanni Medovid — Dr. Francesco 
Nakic — Dr. Joseph Pastrovic — Dr. Teodoro 
Petranovi6 — Giovanni Vrankovic — Marko 
Veceralo — Ciril Zezelj, priest. 

Zara, i$th March, 1861. 



297 



APPENDIX IV 

THE SLAV LITURGY IN DALMATIA. 

Everybody knows that the brothers Constantine of 
Salonica, better known by their monastic names of 
Cyril and Method, were the authors of a great revolution 
both in the Church of Rome and in the Slav world in 
the ninth century. 

The conversion of the Moravian and Pannonian Slavs, 
the creation of a Slav alphabet, which the Slav languages 
had lacked so far, the translation of the Bible into Slav, 
and finally the celebration of the liturgy in the Slav 
tongue, authorized by the Popes Adrian II (867-872) 
and John VIII (872-882)— these are the chief stages 
in the great Slav Christian movement. History ranks 
the authors of this movement, Cyril (d. 869) and Method 
(d. 885) among the very greatest apostles of Christianity. 

Fortunately for their national existence, the Slavs 
have always formed a group apart in the great Christian 
family. They were the latest arrivals in a world already 
old and fashioned almost entirely by the Graeco-Romans 
and the Germans, and only the jealous cult of their 
native tongue in the Church saved them from national 
annihilation, although it did not avail to save them 
from political servitude. 

But it was during the time of collapse, after their stormy 
political career, that the full power of the stupendous 
life-work of Cyril and Method as an instrument for national 

298 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

preservation became fully apparent. Without this, 
Slavdom would probably have been crushed as in a 
vice between the Latin and German worlds. 

In none of the lands that had owned the Latin sway 
was the Slav liturgic tongue welcomed with greater 
enthusiasm than in Dalmatia. The Latin clergy, it is 
true, resisted the introduction of the Slav liturgy in the 
towns, as was only natural. But their resistance failed 
to overcome the affection of the populace and the lower 
clergy for the language of their ancestors. If the populace 
had been of Latin origin, assuredly it would never have 
suffered or fought for the employment of a language 
which is nothing but a mystery and an insult to Latin ears. 

During the time of the reign of Pope John X (914-928), 
the Slav liturgical movement in Dalmatia assumed the 
aspect of a revolt against the authority of Rome. Angered 
hereby, John X wrote to the Archbishop John of Spalato 
forbidding the use of the Slav liturgy, and later on renewed 
this prohibition in a letter to Tomislav, Duke of Croatia, 
and Michael, Prince of the Serbian Zahumlje (the present 
Herzegovina) . 

This marked the beginning of a violent conflict between 
the Latin and Slav clergy. We have already touched 
upon the principal phases of this struggle (see Historical 
Introduction), and shall not return to them. In spite 
of prohibitions and the negative results of the Councils 
of Spalato (which were, however, not without a certain 
influence upon Ragusa and Cattaro, mainly because of 
the rivalry existing between the Metropolitan of Spalato 
and the Metropolitan of Ragusa), the Old Slav tongue, 
written in the Glagolitic alphabet (which is older than 
the Cyrillic), continued to spread in every diocese, and 
took deep root in Dalmatia. Inspired by memories of 
the great Bishop Gregory of Nona and his heroic struggle, 

299 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

the priests refused to celebrate Mass in Latin, especially 
in the dioceses of Zara and Spalato. It is recorded that 
in 1177, Pope Alexander III was solemnly received in 
Zara by the populace and clergy " Slavicis cum cantibus." 
The use of the Slav liturgy has survived in the dioceses 
of Senj (Croatia), Veglia, Zara and Spalato, throughout 
two-thirds of Dalmatia, and — significant phenomenon ! 
— precisely in the territory which was at one time subject 
to Venetian influence. 

In the seventeenth century the Sovereign Pontiffs 
approved of the use of the Glagolitic missals for Dalmatia 
(Pope Urban VIII, on 29th April, 1631). This first 
authorization was followed by a second in the Statute 
issued by Pope Innocent X on 22nd February, 1848, 
approving the Glagolitic breviary, as corrected by the 
Archbishop Levakovid, who had travelled to Russia 
expressly for this purpose. The Glagolitic liturgy was 
again approved by Benedict XIV (Statute of 15th 
August, 1754) and by Pius VI in his Statute " Suprema 
Potestas," published on nth March, 1791. 

During the years from i860 to 1889 several Italianiz- 
ing bishops in Dalmatia have tried to make out that 
these Papal Statutes merely represented a toleranda 
est, which, by the way, would not in the least alter the 
fact that both clergy and populace in Dalmatia are 
almost unanimous in the will to preserve and defend the 
privilege granted to them by John VIII, the great 
protector of the Slavs among the Popes (d. 882). But, 
as a matter of fact, the apostolic letter of Urban VIII, 
" Ecclesia Catholica," granted full and free powers to the 
priests to read Mass in Latin or in the Slav tongue. The 
Pope added that " every parish priest must be able to 
use either the Latin or the Slav missal, in accordance 
with the custom in force." 

300 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

The celebration of Mass in the Slav tongue persisted 
into our own day. The Venetian Government never 
opposed it, nor did the Austrian Government raise any 
opposition, until the Eastern Question entered upon 
an acute stage. 

Thus in 1857, when Dalmatian Nationalism was at 
its lowest ebb, there were in the diocese of Spalato (reduced 
from the rank of an archbishopric to that of a bishopric 
by the terms of the Bull " Locus beati Petri " of 1824) 
alone 61 Glagolitic curates and 98 Glagolitic priests 
holding appointments in the various parishes as vicars 
or curates. 

But since i860 a change has come over the Austrian 
Government with regard to its attitude, and it has become 
hostile to the Old Slav cult. It intervened in Rome to 
prevent the extension of the old privilege, and in 1889 
the number of Glagolitic priests in the diocese of Spalato 
fell from 98 to 62. Nevertheless, in Trail, that supposed 
citadel of Italianism, the midday Mass was still read in 
Old Slav in 1890. Mgr. Calogera protected the Slav 
liturgy, faithful to the example of the great Slav arch- 
bishops and bishops of the eighteenth century, Mgrs. 
Kozicic (Spalato), Begna (Zara), Bizza (Spalato), Zmajevic 
(Zara), and Karaman (Spalato). 

The Priests' Seminary at Almissa (Omis), founded by 
Archbishop Bizza of Spalato (1746-1756), and the Theo- 
logical Faculty in Zara, founded by the Archbishop 
Zmajevic (1713-1745), were both Slav institutions, and the 
Old Slav liturgic tongue was — and is— always taught there. 

Simultaneously with this rise of the Slav liturgy, the 
use of the Serbo-Croat vulgar tongue existed and increased 
both in the towns and in the country for all religious 
ceremonies, besides the Mass (Baptism, Confirmation, 
Marriage, Burial, etc.). 

301 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

In the meantime, even where the Mass is said in Latin, 
the Gospel and Epistle have always been chanted in 
Serbo-Croatian in all Dalmatian churches. 

This cardinal fact, which bears eloquent witness to 
the Slav sentiments of the Dalmatians, was publicly 
recognized in the sitting of the Dalmatian Diet on 17th 
July, 1887, by Mgr. Maupas, Archbishop of Zara (a 
Frenchman by extraction), who was an autonomist 
in politics, and therefore an opponent of the Serbo- 
Croat National party. 

" The honourable Deputies know the province well," 
he said, " and they know that in all churches, both in 
the country and in the towns, the people sing in Slav. 
At all religious functions, with the exception of the Mass, 
from which the vulgar tongue is excluded, all the chants 
and hymns are Slav, and even during the Mass the people, 
as a matter of fact, pronounce the responses in Slav." 

In 1889 the Austrian Government, supported as usual 
by the Italianist party, took up a definitely hostile attitude 
towards the Slav liturgy. Already in 1887 it had opposed 
the Montenegrin Concordate, as well as the introduction 
of the Slav liturgy in the diocese of Antivari. 

In this opposition, which was above all things due to 
the circumstance that the missals for Montenegro, which 
had been printed in Rome, were not in Glagolitic but 
in Cyrillic characters — the alphabet in use in the Russian 
and Serbian Orthodox churches — the Vienna Govern- 
ment found itself in agreement with the Russian, which 
objected to the Concordate for a totally different reason. 
Austria feared a closer alliance between the Montenegrin 
Catholics and the Serbs and Croats of Dalmatia and 
Bosnia, and she also feared the introduction of the Cyrillic 
script in Dalmatia. In fact, with the help of the Croat 
Radicals, an agitation for the Catholics to call themselves 

302 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Croats was specially engineered in the diocese of Antivari. 
Russia, on the other hand, feared a Catholic propaganda 
among the Orthodox section of the community, carried 
on through the medium of an identical language and 
script. Fortunately, Mgr. Strossmayer, supported by 
Cardinal Bartolini and helped by the Barnabite Father 
Tondini de' Quarenghi and all the Croatian bishops, 
gained his point, and the Concordate was concluded. 

At this juncture the Dalmatian Diet likewise passed 
a resolution (17th July, 1887) to obtain from the Holy 
See the introduction of the Slavo-Glagolitic liturgy in 
all Dalmatian dioceses. Encouraged by the Slavophil 
Encyclical " Grande Munus" of Leo XIII (30th September, 
1880), the Executive Committee of the Diet drew up a 
memorandum upon this question, which was forwarded 
by the Vienna Government to the Dalmatian bishops 
ad referendum. The Bishops of Cattaro, Ragusa, Spalato 
and the Isles (Lessina, Brazza, Lissa) pronounced them- 
selves in favour of the resolution ; the Bishop of Spalato 
opposed it and the Archbishop of Zara reserved his 
opinion. 

Hereupon Count Kalnoky, Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, informed the Nuncio, Mgr. Galimberti, of the 
result of the inquiry by a " highly confidential " note 
of 13th December, 1889, in which he suggested to the 
Nuncio to advise the Pope " not to revive either within 
the Monarchy or abroad an institution which, though 
appropriate to other times, was no longer suited to 
present circumstances." 

Leo XIII did not yield to the Austrian suggestions. 
He did not extend the use of the Slav liturgy, but, like 
his successor Pius X, he approved it for the dioceses of 
Sinj, Veglia, Zara and Spalato, and, generally speaking, 
everywhere where it could be proved that it had been 

803 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

in use for the last thirty years. The movement in favour 
of the general use of the Slav language in the Dalmatian 
Church is very strong, especially in the diocese of Spalato, 
where the clergy, almost without exception, has been 
won over to the idea of divine service in the Slav tongue. 

All of which proves : 

i. The Slav character of the Dalmatian people ; 

2. The persistence of the ties which link the people 
of Dalmatia with the Balkan Slavs in spite of the im- 
mense pressure exercised by the Latin clergy during past 
centuries; and finally — 

3. The systematic opposition of the Austrian Govern- 
ment, which is only one of the countless proofs of Austria's 
irreconcilable hostility to every manifestation of the 
Slav Idea ; contrary to what has been asserted in the 
camp of the enemy and by the detractors of Dalmatian 
Slavism. 



304 



APPENDIX V 

RULES OF THE TURIN CENTRAL SOCIETY FOR 
AN ITALO-SLAV ALLIANCE. 

Rule I. — The Central Society has its headquarters 
in Turin. It undertakes to organize branch societies 
in other Italian provincial capitals. 

Rule II. — Both Italians and non-Italians can belong 
to the Society. 

Rule III. — The members of the Society undertake 
to work for the object which it has in view. 

Rule IV. — The object of the Society is to maintain 
active and brotherly love between Italians and Slavs, 
for the independence and prosperity of both nations, 
and with a view to establishing between Slavs and 
Magyars the same amicable relations as those existing 
between Magyars and Italians and between both of these 
nations and Poland. The Society will take the necessary 
steps, so that the Moldo-Valachs, who share a common 
origin with the Italian peoples and common interests 
with the Slavs and Magyars, may give their help to the 
common cause. 

Rule V. — No one can become a member of the Society 
without having been introduced by a written application 
signed by the two Secretaries and passed by the Society 
at an ordinary meeting. 

Rule VI. — The Society may admit Honorary Mem- 
bers, who must be nominated by it at its ordinary 
meetings. 

805 u 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Rule VII. — The Executive of the Society to consist 
of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary and two 
Vice-Secretaries, all appointed by the members of the 
Society by a majority vote. The term of their office 
shall be for six months. 

Rule VIII. — The President, the Vice-President, the 
Secretary and two Vice-Secretaries must be Italians. 

Rule IX. — The President will choose the Treasurer 
of the Society from among the members. 

Rule X. — The Branch Societies will each have a 
President and a Secretary, who must likewise be Italians. 

Rule XL — The Executive of the Central Society 
and the Executive of the Branch Societies will be in 
frequent correspondence, and will keep each other in- 
formed as to the activities of the Society. 

Rule XII. — The Society will also be in touch with 
other societies formed, or about to be formed, among the 
Slavs for the same object. 

Rule XIII. — The Society will hold an ordinary meeting 
once a fortnight. Extraordinary meetings will take 
place whenever the President considers it advisable. 

Rule XIV. — As its pecuniary resources increase, 
the Society will undertake to print at its own expense 
and to facilitate the publication of such scientific and 
literary works in Slav or Italian language as it may 
consider helpful for its object. 

Rule XV. — The funds of the Society will be derived 
from an entrance fee of five francs, due from every 
member of the Society, and a subscription of five 
francs, paid in advance, for the first three months. The 
amount of this subscription will be fixed, from session 
to session, at a general meeting of all the members in 
accordance with the requirements of the Society. 

Rule XVL— The Society will publish a Slavo- 

306 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

Italian journal, which will appear at least once a fort- 
night and will be entitled The Journal of the Italo-Slav 
Alliance. 

Rule XVII. — The present rules may be modified 
at subsequent meetings of the Society. 

(Published in the daily paper New Italy, in 
Venice, No. 27, under the date of 30th 
March, 1849, Library of St. Mark 763, 
Journals Nos. 1848-1849-55962.) 



307 



APPENDIX VI 

MANIFESTO TO THE AUSTRIAN SLAVS (1848). 

Slav Peoples ! 

Even before Christ had brought the religion of 
love and sacrifice to this world, you had a profound 
sense of brotherhood ; and the original form of your 
Government bears the imprint of this. 

To-day, after long centuries during which you did 
not know one another, you are awakened, and gathered 
together for the first National Assembly at Prague ; 
and your first word was one of brotherhood. On the 
breasts of your young warriors behold the device : 
" For Slavdom and Liberty ! " — and it is in the name 
of these sentiments, of these sacred rights of nation- 
ality and liberty that we express our love to you, 
Slavs, and that we invite you to contract an alliance 
which will secure civil and political liberty for you as 
well as for ourselves. 

We do not hesitate to speak to you of alliance and 
peace since we know that you are on the point of 
treating with Hungary and breaking with Austria, whom 
we shall fight to the bitter end, as it is impossible to 
deal with her. 

In defending our rights upon our own soil, we shall 
fight for your cause also, O Slav peoples. 

We appeal to you for moral support, because you, 
too, have your independence, your nationality and 
liberty to regain. And we also demand practical 

308 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

support irom you, since in your battle with Austria 
your triumph is dependent upon two conditions : 
first, that Austria is weakened by the detachment of 
the nationalities comprised within her territory ; second, 
that your own nationality should be, geographically 
speaking, strongly centralized. For each of these con- 
siderations, Austria's victory in Italy will profit only 
Austria, and not you. 

Our proximity to each other, O Slavs, the traditions 
of the past, the interests of the present and the future, 
impose upon us the duty to form a close alliance. In 
the East, North and West you are encircled by your 
inveterate enemies ; on one side only can you find 
support — on that of Italy. 

For fourteen centuries there has been no war between 
us. Ragusa, the Illyrian Athens, used to be the fair 
and noble expression of Italo-Slav civilization. 

Present interests call even more insistently for an 
understanding. A strong and independent Italy, your 
natural neighbour, will protect your efforts to regain 
your independence and liberty and to allay the perils 
which would menace either. Moreover, she would be 
the intermediary between you and France. Resur- 
rected together by the principle of nationality, we need 
not fear that we shall see discord engendered between 
us by the fact that the boundaries of our two nations 
coincide with the boundaries of our territories. The 
Slavs and Italians who live in perfect accord side by 
side in Istria and Dalmatia show you the picture of 
two friendly peoples, such as we shall be in the future, 
such as we propose to be henceforth. The Adriatic, 
which you call the Azure Sea, and of which we, the 
Italians and Slavs, are the masters, because it is chiefly 
we who make use of it, will vouch for the development 

309 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

of our industry and commerce ; and the latter shall 
not be hampered by customs barriers. 

Consider then, O Slavs, that without a strong and 
independent Italy you cannot be strong and indepen- 
dent either. Italy has an interest in your victory in 
Austria and in your brotherly understanding with 
the Magyars and Rumanes. 

Not only among the Poles, whose sympathy for the 
Italian cause has been guaranteed by incontestable 
proofs, but also among the other Slav families in Austria 
there are many enlightened spirits, who understand 
the advantages which would accrue to you and to us 
by this alliance. We appeal more particularly to them. 

Tell us frankly, what have you gained by this liberty 
which Austria has deceitfully imposed upon you and 
to which you so ardently aspired ? Less slaves than 
formerly, you approve by your silence Austria's crimes 
against Italy. Austria takes advantage of this silence 
and says to the foreign Courts : " My peoples are free ; 
they discuss and establish their laws themselves ; and 
yet neither Bohemians nor Illyrians protest against 
the war with Italy. Is that not a proof that even the 
Slavs do not recognize the rights which the Italians 
arrogate to themselves ? " 

In this way, Slavs, you are making common cause 
with Austria and with Russia, who is Austria's support 
in the Italian war. Because the Autocrat knows well 
that if Austria were to lose those five million Italians, 
you Slavs would agree with the Magyars and Rumanes, 
you would vanquish him, and you would be free and 
independent, which he does not wish you to be. You 
make common cause with the enemies of the rights of 
nationality and liberty. Then how can you lay claim 
to the recovery of your own liberty ? 

310 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 

A state of affairs like this cannot go on. Even the 
least enlightened among you must realize that Austria 
is betraying your race ; that the nationality of a people 
does not consist solely in being allowed to speak its 
mother tongue, but in possessing that full independence 
besides, to which we Italians aspire, and which alone 
will give us satisfaction. 

And since you, Slavs, desire to come to an agree- 
ment with the Magyars and to break away from Austria, 
we proffer you a brotherly hand. Take it ; and in 
place of a treacherous Austria you will have fifteen 
million Italians as allies, friends and brothers ; and 
eventually all Italy. Therefore let us unite ; and do 
not seek the protection of the Germans and the Russians. 
Unite with us. Our united forces will suffice to estab- 
lish your nationality. 

Provisional Office. 

Lorenzo Valerio, President. 

Leone, Professor, Vice-President. 

Giorgio Pallavicini, Vice-President. 

Paolo Belgiojoso, Secretary. 

(Published in No. 26 of the paper L'ltalia Nuova. 
Venice, March 19, 1849. Library of S. Mark. 
763 journals, No. 1848-49 — 55962, pp. 102-103.) 



311 



INDEX 



Adrian II, Pope, 298 
Albert of Austria, 85 
Alberti, noble house of, 118, 

124 
Alexander II, Pope, 46 
Alexander III, Pope, 300 
Alexander I of Russia, 220 
Alexander LObrenovid of Serbia, 

256 
Alexander Karageorgevic, 

Prince, 151 
Alexis Comnenus, 55, 60 
Alfieri, 181 
Alfred the Great, 47 
Altoviti, 106 

Andrew I of Hungary, 68 
Andrew II, 74 
Andrew III, 70 
Andrew of Zahumlje, 70 
Antonietti, 284, 285 
Antonines, the, 35 
Arcadius, Roman Emperor, 39 
Augustus, Roman Emperor, 34, 

35. 179 
Aurehan, Roman Emperor, 37 
Autonomist Party in Dalmatia, 

163 and following pp. 
Avars, the 35, 39, 271 

Babukic, 130 
Badoer da Spinale, 56 
Bajamonti, Mayor of Spalato, 

168, 170-5, 183; re-elected, 

189 ; resigns, 190 ; 199, 

240 
Ban, Matija, Serbian writer, 

280 



Barakovid of Zara, 109 

Bartolini, Cardinal, 303 

Barzilai, irredentist deputy, 226 

Basil, Eastern Emperor, 47 

Begna, 103, 117; re-elected, 
286 

Begna-Possedaria, Count Cosimo, 
136, 283 

Begovid, 106 

Bela I of Hungary, 66 

Bela II, 67 

Bela III, 69 

Bela IV, 69 

Belgiojoso, 310 

Belgrade (Zaravecchia), 51, 56 

Belgrade, 135 

Bnedict XIV, Pope, 300 

Berger, 187 

Beust, Count, 187 

Beankini, 235 

Bihac, near Trail, ducal residence 
at, 43 

Bismarck, 293 

Bizza, Archbishop, 301 

Blaskovid, Bishop of Makarska, 
124 

Bocche di Cattaro, insurrection 
at, 188, 193, 220-2 

Boniface VIII, Pope, 71 

Borelli, 118, 137; Count Fran- 
cesco, 168, 199 ; Count Man- 
fred, 292 

Botid, 106, 210 

Branimir, 44 

Brestel, 1S7 

Bribir, Count Stephen (Subid) 
of, 69 



313 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Bruere-Desrivaux, 118 
Budmani, io5 
Bukovac, 1 06 
Bulgars, the, 48 
Buzolid, 106 

Calogera.Mgr., Bishopof Spalato, 

protector of Slav liturgy, 

301 
Cambi, noble house of, 118 
Campo Formio, Treaty of, 97 
Candiano, Doge Pietro, 47 
Cantii, Cesare, 127 
Capponi, 129 
Car, 106 
Carpaccio, 115 
Carus, Roman Emperor, 37 
Cavagnini, 118 
Cavour, 136, 153 ; his speech, 

154 ; 194, 267 
Cavtat (Ragusavecchia) Trial 

of, 218-19 
Cerva of Ragusa, 37 
Charles Martel, 70 
Charles Robert of Anjou, 70, 

7i. 74 
Charles VI (III of Hungary and 

Croatia), 59 
Charles IV, 77 
Charles of Durazzo, 83 
Cicca, sister of King Kresimir, 

63 
Cindro, 124 
Cippico, Lelio, Archbishop of 

Spalato, 124 
Cippico, John, 106 
Cisalpine Parliament, the, 148, 

153 
Claudius II, Roman Emperor, 

37 
Colautti, Arturo, 177, 178, 287 
Columna, family of, 51 
Corfu, Tommaseo in, 157 
Correnti, Cesare, 193 
Costi, Venetian advocate, 219 



Croatian Estates, meeting at 

Cetin, 191 
Cubranovic, 1 1 1 
Culinovic, George (Gregorio 

Schiavone), 115 
Curzola, Island of, 51 
Cvijic, Jovan, Rector of the 

University of Belgrade, 254 
Cyril and Method, SS., 249 ; 

millennium celebration, 284 ; 

298 

Dandolo, Doge Enrico, 67, 73, 
291 

Dandolo, Vincenzo, 95 

Danilo, editor of the Nazionale, 
219, 283 

Dante, 127; six-centenary festi- 
val, 177 ; mentions Croatia 
and Serbia, 246 

Dante Alighieri Society, 226-7 

Defacis, President of the Court 
of Appeal, 288 

Delcasse, 261 

DeSkovic, 106 

Devi6, Abbe, 177 

De Rubertis, Professor, 143, 418 

Diedo, Angelo, 106 

Dimitrovic, Spiridion, 144, 145 

Dinaric Alps and Velebit, not 
a Chinese Wall, 124, 251 

Dinaric migration, 254 

Diocletian, 35, 36, 37 ; aqueduct 
of, 172 

Dionisius, Ban of Croatia, 70 

Domagoj of Croatia, 44 

Druzak, Narentan prince, 43 

Drzic, 92 

Duknovic, Ivan (Giovanni Dal- 
mata), 115 

Dumaneo, 113 

Duplancic, Vincenzo, 283, 285 

Dusan the Mighty (Stephen 
Uro5 IV), 75 ; crowned Em- 
peror, 76-8, 80, 247 



314 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, 79 
Elizabeth of Serbia, 82 
Erdodi, Ban of Croatia, 149 
Eudes, Count of Paris, 47 
Evans, Sir Arthur, 222 

Falier, Ordelafo, 60, 62, 65-6 

Falier, Stornato, 56 

Falier, Vitale, 55 

Fanfogna, Dalmatian nobles, 

103, 117 
February Patent, the, 2S3 
Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of 

Tuscany, 100 
Ferdinand I, 191, 268 
Ferdinand V, 192 
Ferrari-Cupilli, Giuseppe, 112, 

166 
Ferrari-Cupilli, Simeone, 177-8 ; 

publisher of II Datnata, 287 
Fichert, Luigi, Zaratine poet, 

282 
Filippi, 168, 175, 190 
Fiuman Slavs in Padua, 144 
Fiume, 145 ; Gazetta di, 216 ; Ban 

Jelacic. Governor of, 2S0-1 
Fosco, Mgr., Bishop of Sebenico, 

249 
Foscolo, Leonardo, 93, 94, 103 
Francis II, 192 
Francis Joseph, Emperor, 158, 

159, 192, 210 
Freeman, Edward, 222 
Frankopan (Frangipani), Count 

Ivan, 89 
Franks, the, 42, 271 

Gaj, Ljudevit, 125, 130, 139, 

193 

Galli, Italian M.P., 251, 290 
Galvani, Autonomist deputy, 

204 
Garagnin, 95 
Garibaldi, 196, 217, 219; Zara 

corresponds with, 251 



Germanicus, 35 

Giljanovic (Ghiglianovitch), Ja- 
copo, Liberal Autonomist, 

175. 197 
Giorgi, Ignazio, 122, 140 
Giorgi, Marino, 208 
Giskra, 187 
Gladstone, 222 
Glagolitic missal, 300 
Glovic (Clovio), Julius, 115 
Gojkovid, Matthew, 115 
Golden Bull, the, 68 
Goluchowski, Federalist Ministry 

of, 283 
Gospodnetid (de Dominis), 

Bishop of Trail, 84 
Goths and Huns, 39 
Gradi, 106 

Grazio, Sigismondo de, 137 
Gregory VII, Pope, 53-4 
Gregory, Bishop of Nona, 45, 

299 
Grey, Sir Edward, 261 
Grubisic, Giuseppe, Nationalist, 

280 
Guerazzi, 245 

Gundnlic, Ivan, 92, III, 262 
Gundulid, Marino, 102 

Hasner, 1S7 

Haller, Ban, 149 

Hektorovic, 92, no 

Helena of Hungary, Zvonimir's 

wife, 54, 55 
Helen, DuSan's sister, 76-7 
Henry I of England, 62 
Herbst, 187, 244 
Honorius, Emper r, 39 
Honorius III, Pope, 73 
Hreglianovitch, 95 
Hrvoje Vukcic, 84 

lllyrian Ballads, Tommaseo's, 



Illyrians, the, 33 



315 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Illyrism, 135, 149 
Innocent III, Pope, 68 
Innocent VI, Pope, 77 
Innocent X, Pope, 300 
Ivanisevid, no 
Ivicevic, Stephen, 210 

Jelacid, Ban of Croatia, 149, 
150; Ban of Dalmatia, 151, 
155, 160, 257 

John VIII, Pope, 44, 298, 300 

John X, Pope, 49, 299 

John, Archbishop of Spalato, 
299 

Jovanovi<5, Governor, 291 

Kacic, the, 68, 117 

Kacic, Andrija, 107, no, 112, 

122, 262 
Kalnoky, Count, 303 
Kanavelic, no 
Karageorge, 254, 257 
Karadjic, Vuk Stefanovid, editor 

of National Ballads, 252 ; 

translates New Testament, 

253 
Karaman, Mgr., Archbishop of 

Spalato, 301 
Karlovitz (Karlovci), Peace of, 

Karnarutid, Bernard, 109 

Katalinid, 106 

Kazali, 106 

Kaznadid, Antonio, of Ragusa, 

144, 148 
Keller, Dr., first to mention 

an Italian " nationality " in 

Dalmatia, 201, 290 
Klaid, 173-4, 202, 210, 212, 

235. 239. 283 
Klis (Clissa), near Spalato, 

residence of Croatian duke, 

43 ; occupied by Turks 

(1537), 90. 
Knin, 44 



Kohanowski, Polish poet, 40 
Kolar, Czech patriot, 139, 144 
Koloman, King of Hungary, 

56-7, 60-1, 64, 66 ; King 

of Dalmatia, 191 
Korolija, 106 
Kosaca, Stephen, Bosnian Duke, 

89 
Kosovo, Battle of, 81 ; Ballads, 

239. 247-8 
Kossuth, 149, 151 
Kotromanid, Stephen, Ban of 

Bosnia, 72 
Kozicic, Mgr., Archbishop of 

Spalato, 301 
Kreslmir 1, of Croatia, 49 
Kresimir II, Michael, 49 
KreSimir III, 52-3 
KreSimir IV, Peter, 53 
Kukuljevid, Ivan, 130, 145, 

160 
Kuzmanid, editor of Zora Dal- 

matinska, 136 ; 146, 281 

Ladislaus I of Hungary, 54, 
55. 56 

Ladislas of Naples, 83, 84 

Lagosta, Island of, 51 

Lantana, Domenico, 137 

Lapenna, 171, 178, 187, 197 ; 
his declaration, 222, 285 ; 
conflict between him and 
Bajamonti, 286 

Laurana, Francesco, 115, 116 

Laurana, Lucian, 115 

Lega Nazionale, 226-7 

Leo XIII, Pope, 236, 303 

Lepanto, Battle of, 31, 87 

Lepidus, 35 

LjubiSa, President of the Dal- 
matian Diet, 190, 221 

Ljudevit Posavski, 42, 247 

Loredan, 84 

Lorenzo the Magnificent, 100 

Lothair, King, 43 



316 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Louis the Pious, 42, 43 
Louis of Anjou, 75-6, 79, 82 
Louis II of Hungary, 89 
Lucid (Lucio), John, the his- 
torian, 61, 64, 107, no, 112 
Lucie, Hannibal, no 

Makarska, Venice defeated at, 

47 
Mamiani, 152 

Manula, Governor, 170, 285. 
Manger, Dr., 286 
Manin, 193, 267 
Manuel Comnenus, 66, 67 
Manzin, 137, 288 
Marchi, Count Giov. Pietro, 115 
Marica, Battle of the, 80 
Marinelli, Vincenzo, 148 
Martinic, Count Clam, 189 
Marko Kraljevic, 251 
Marulic, Marko, 92, 109, no 
Mary, Queen of Naples, 70 
Mary, Queen of Hungary, 83-4 
Masaryk, Professor, 263 
Matajevid (Orsini, il Dalmatico), 

92, 115 
Matic, editor of the Nazionale, 

219 
" Matica Dalmatinska," the 

Society, 162, 175 
Matkovid founds II Dalmata, 

286 
Matthew Ninoslav of Bosnia, 

70 
Maupas, Mgr. Archbishop of 

Zara, 249, 302 
Mazarin, Cardinal, 203 
Mazzini, 7, 9, 100, 125, 127, 129, 

132, 195, 204-5 ; Autobio- 
graphical Notes, 245 ; 258, 

264 
Medovid, C, 106 ; Demetrio, 

137 ; John, 289, 291 
Medulid, Andrew (lo Schiavonej, 

"5 



Mencetid, 92 

Mestrovid, Ivan, 106 

Micha Madii de Barbazanis, 

37 
Michael of Zahumlje 45, 49, 

299 
Michael VII, Emperor, 55 
Michiel, Domenico, 66 
Michiel, Vitale, 56 
Mickiewicz, 140, 154 
Miklogic (Monumenia Serbica), 

142 
Milesi, 124 

Milid, Dalmatian politician, 210 
Mino da Fiesole, 115 
Minghetti, 152 
Miskatovid, 256 
Mislav, Croat Prince, 43 
Mitrovid, Count Deda, 137 
Mocenigo, Alvise, 102 
Mohacs, Battle of, 89 
Montenegro, Prince Peter II of, 

151, 193 ; Prince Nicholas 

of, 250, 257 ; missals for, 

302 
Mrazovid, Croat National leader 

256 
Mrnjavid, no 
Murat, 106 
Mutimir of Croatia, 48 

Nakid, Mayor of Zara, 136, 277 
Naljeskovid, 93, 112 
Napoleon, 125 

Narodna Citaonica (National 
News Room) in Zara, 284-5 
Nazor, 106 

Nemanja, house of, 73 
Nemanja, Zupan Stephen, 73, 

239 
Neue Freie Presse, the, 188, 

230 
Nicholas I of Russia, 156 
Nicholas of Montenegro, 250, 

257 



317 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Nievo, 106 

Nikopoli (Nicopolis), Battle of 

82 
Nodilo, Sperato, the historian, 

123, 176 
Nona, bishopric of, 44, 46 

Obrenovid, Michael, 151, 257 
Obrenovic, Milos, 193, 238, 255, 

257 
October Diploma, 202, 283 
Orseolo II, Doge Pietro, 47, 

Orseolo, Otho, 52-3 

Palacky, 139, 244 

Palmotic, 92 

Particiaco, Doge Orso, 44 

Pasid, Nikola, 256 

Pavlovic, Count Giovanni, 137 

Pellegrini, Dr. Cesare di, 137 

Peter Gojnikovid of Serbia, 48 

Peter II of Croatia, 56 

Peter the Great, 1 1 1 

Petranovic, 106 ; publishes 
Srpski Dalmatinski Almanah, 
136 

Petric, 106 

Pius VI, Pope, 300 

Pius IX, Pope, 152 

Pius, X, Pope, 303 

Plener, 186, 244 

Poljica, county of, 64, 86, 114 ; 
Constitution of, 281 

Portogruaro, Vice-Captain di, 
106 

Possedaria, 103, 117 

Potocki, 187 

Po2arevac, Peace of, 94, 105 

Pozza, Nicold (Nicholas), Count, 
142, 210 

Pozza (Pocic), Orsato, Ragusan 
patrician, 142 and through- 
out Chap. II, 210, 255, 262 

Pozza, Raffaele, 142 



Pragmatic Sanction, 59, 191, 

268 
Prague, Slav Congress of, 136 
Prati, Italian poet, 148, 263 
Preradovic, Petar, 145 
Prezzolini on Dalmatia, 217 
Probus, Roman Emperor, 37 
Pulic, 283 

Quarnero, Islands of, 51 

Racki, Croat historian, 235, 

256 
Radman, 286 
Radmilli, 190 
Radovan, 93 
Raduleo, 113 
Ragusa (Dubrovnik), 25, 38, 

40, 51, 64, 70, 86-7, etc., 

97 
Rainer, Archduke, 221 
Raj acid, Orthodox Patriarch, 

151 

Rampolla, Cardinal, 237 
ReSetar, 106 

Resti, Ragusan historian, 64 
Rieger, Ladislas, Czech National 

leader, 232 
Robert Guiscard, 54 
Rodic, Governor Baron, 188-9, 

221 
Rolfs, Wilhelm, 116 
Romanus II, Eastern Emperor, 

48 
Romanus III, 53 
Roumania, 37 
Ruffini, 156 

Sadowa, Battle of, 202, 234 
St. Jerome, College of, 236 
St. Stephen of Hungary, 51 
Salona, 35, 39, 54 
Samuel, Tsar of Bulgaria, 49 
Schiavone, Andrea, see Medulid 
Schiavone, Felice, 144 



318 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Schiavone (dall' Area), 115 

Schmerling, 189, 209, 283 

" Scholars' Kitchen " in Zara, 
288 

Sebenico, 25, 46, 61 

Selvo, Doge Domenico, 55 

Serragli, 1 70 

Sigismund, Emperor, consort of 
Queen Mary, 83-4 

Silvanus Plautius, 35 

Simeon, Tsar of Bulgaria, 49 

Simunovic, 106 

Slavic, 53-4 

Smiciklas, Thaddeus, 236 

Smiljanic, 103 

Smodlaka, Josip, 230 

Sobieski, King John, 95 

Sonnino, Baron, 169 

Soric, 94 

Spalato, name originally Greek, 
25-6J Councils at, 45-6, 299 ; 
51, 61, 66 ; Municipal 
Theatre of, 171, 240 

Stadler, Mgr., Archbishop of 
Sarajevo, 236 

Starcevic, 233 ; his party, 235 

Stephen Dr2islav, 49, 50 

Stephen I of Croatia, 53 

Stephen III of Hungary, 66 

Stephen IV, of Hungary, 66 

Stephen I of Serbia, 73 

Stephen Uros II, 74 

Stephen Uro§ III, 74 

Stephen UroS IV, see Dusan the 
Mighty 

Stephen II of Bosnia, 79 

Stephen Tvrtko II, 84 

Stratico, Bishop of Lesina, 113 

Strossmayer, Bishop, 59, 193, 
208, 219 ; founder of Jugo- 
slav Academy, etc., 235, 
248 ; 250, 256, 303 

Stuparid, 139 

Subid, Princes, of Bribir, 68, 



71 



Subid, Stephen, of Birbir, 69 

Subid, Paul, 71 

Subid, Ban Mladen, 71, 74 

Subid, Mladen III, 76 

Subid, Mladen IV, 77 

Suleiman the Magnificent, 89- 

90 
Sundecid, Serbian poet, 281, 

283 
Svacid, Domaldo, 68 
Svetoslav, 51 

Taaffe, 187-9, Cabinet, 240 

Taine, 116 

Tanzlinger-Zanotti, 113 

Tartars, the, 69, 271 

Teuta, Illyrian Queen, 34 

Theodosius the Great, 39 

Thomas of Spalato, 37 

Thugut, Austrian Chancellor, 
124 

Tiberius, 35 

Tomislav of Croatia, 45, 48-9, 
299 

Tommaseo, Niccolo, 40, 108, 
no, 119-20, Chap. II ; 164 ; 
replies to Vojnovid's pam- 
phlet, 166 ; 179, App. I ; 
267 

Toncid, editor of the Nazionale, 
219 

Tradonico, Doge Pletro, 42 

Trau, 25, 51, 61 

Tresid, modern poet, 106 

Trialism, 233 

Trieste, 79-80, 82 ; Sofia Rus- 
nov of Trieste, 145 ; 281 

Tripkovid, 210 

Trpimir of Croatia, 43 

Tucid, Srgjan, 263 

Tvrtko of Bosnia, 82-3, 248 

Urban VIII, Pope, 300 
" Uskoks," the, 90 ; Danidid, 
leader of, 91 



319 



DALMATIA AND THE JUGOSLAV MOVEMENT 



Varna, Battle of, 87 

Veglia, Island of, 46 

Vekenega, Cicca's daughter, 63 

Velbuzd, Battle of, 74 

Verdun, Treaty of, 47 

Victor Emmanuel II, 163 

Victor Emmanuel III, 282 

Vidali of Curzola, 112 

Vidovic, 106 

Vienna, Congress of, 97 

Visovic, Michael, 48 

Vivante, Angelo, author of Irre- 
dentismo Adriatico, 148 

Vodnik, Slovene poet, 125 

Vodopid, 106 

Vojnovid, Count Constantine, 
178 ; his pamphlet Un Voto 
per I'Unione, 179-83, 199- 
201 ; 204 

Vojnovid (Ivo), Count (Serbo- 
Croatian poet), 106 

Vojnovid, Count George, sen., 124 

Vojnovid, Count George, jun., 

221 
Vojvodina, the Serbian, 159, 
189 

Vrankovid, Deputy, satire in 
Nazionale, 291 

Vraz, Stanko, 130 

Vuka&in, King of Serbia, 80 



Vrana, near Zara, occupied by 
Turks until 1647, 31:64 

Wagner, General, 221 

Ward, British Commissioner for 

the Ionian Isles, 153 
Wimpffen Regiment, 270 

Young Italian Autonomists, 
225 

Zachary, Serbian prince, 49 

Zagreb, 46, 135 ; National 
Assembly at, 193 ; Confer- 
ence of, 206-10 ; Croat Uni- 
versity of, 227 

Zanotti, 118 

Zara, name Illyrian, 25 ; 38, 
46, 50-1, 60-1, 66 ; taken 
by Crusaders 67 ; 136 ; Zara 
and the Slav National Move- 
ment, App. Ill, 277 

Zavrsnik, Giuseppe, of Fiume, 

145 
Ziliotto, Luigi, Mayor of Zara, 

217 
Zmajevid, Archbishop of Zara, 

301 
Zrinjski (Zrin, Zriny), 71, no 



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